Armies of Liberation

On the average half of kids even have access to a school in walking distance, and for girls that access is even more limited by the shortage of female teachers. (Related issues include corruption in schools, the withholding of teachers pay, punative teacher transfers, and the failure to fully implement the 2005 Wages Strategy, all of which will become more severe as the oil money runs out.) The original press release and contact info from Seyaj is below the fold and I’ll add the raw data:

HODEIDAH, 19 November 2009 (IRIN) – Nearly half of children in rural areas of the western Yemeni governorate of Hodeidah, have no access to basic education, according to a new report by the Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP) and the Yemen News Agency.

A survey was conducted on a random sample of 3,249 boys and girls from 1,542 families in the districts of Lihyah, Zahrah and Beit al-Faqih, said Fahd al-Sabri, lead author of the report.

The survey results, announced on 18 November, indicate that 45 percent of boys and 52 percent of girls in the 6-15 age group have no access to basic education – for several reasons, including vulnerability of their families, lack of schools and teachers, or schools being far away from their homes, al-Sabri told IRIN. (Read on …)

Just as al Ailami predicted, the shipload of Chinese weapons imported by the Defense Ministry for the Houthi rebels moved next to Sudan, in theory not offloaded in Yemen. Yemen Gazette:

HODEIDA, 30 Oct — The Chinese vessel laden with weapons that was imported by tribal chieftain and arms dealer, Sheik Hadi Mothana has left the port of Hodeida back to China without off loading its cargo, the independent website, Marib Press said on Friday, adding “the Chinese ship arrived in Sudan where it off loaded oil drilling equipment it was carrying and has started sailing back to China.” Other conflicting reports said President Saleh had met with Sheik Hadi Mothana and agreed to allow the ministry of defense to buy the shipment. The ministry of defense has denied any ties to the shipment and Mothana said he has “solid evidence the government has asked for the cargo.

Updated to include dates of Iranian warships on “piracy patrols” that landed in Yemen.

Possibly the mystery of the three recent incidents of exploding Yemeni fishing boats can be explained as Iranian missile shipments. The following article asserts Iran is shipping from an African country, likely Sudan, to Yemen. A Yemeni fishing boat also exploded in a Sudanese port and Yemen’s Midi Island is a new transit point for Sudanese refugees. Once there’s a smuggling route established for weapons, the boats often also transport refugees.

However this report is taken from a Yemeni government stooge newspaper, Akhbar al Youm, which once announced that Ayatollah Sistani and I (me Jane) wrote the 2005 Amnesty International report, so there you go… It could be spin but the part that seems truest is that Yemeni government officials facilitated the shipment’s entry to Yemen. Its equally likely the Iranian missiles, if they were off loaded in Yemen, were destined for al Qaeda as the Houthi rebels. The paper is owned by President Saleh’s half brother General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar who is in a perpetual power struggle with other elements of the family. General al Ahmar is tasked with leading the war against the Houthi rebels, and as odd as it seems, a shipload of Chinese weapons was recently imported (with forged documents from the Yemeni defense ministry), thought destined for the Houthi rebels. Its a very fractured government.

Adding some weight to the story is the January 09 incident of Israel bombing an Iranian weapons shipment headed for Gaza from The Sudan, with Yemen noted as a leg of the route. So if Iran is drop shipping weapons to Sudan, from there they could go either direction. Two Iranian warships did dock in Yemen during the time frame referenced (prior to August 09), approved by Yemen’s president. A third fleet docked in September 2009.

Yemen Tribune SANAA, 15 Oct — The pro-government daily newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm Thursday quoted ‘special’ sources as saying “Iran provided the Shiite insurgents in Yemen with advanced anti-armour missiles one month before the sixth round of war erupted between the Zaydi Shiite rebels and government forces in north Yemen.” “The information we obtained revealed the missiles were shipped through the sea via an Iranian vessel that began its journey from an African port,” said Akhbar al-Youm, adding “the Iranian missiles-laden vessel docked near Yemen’s Mydi port in Hajja where smaller boats transferred the missiles to Mydi. The missiles were then moved and stored in farms near Mydi and later were transferred to the rebels through Hajja and Hodeida.” “State officials were involved in the operation and arranged for the Iranian ship to enter Yemeni water territorial,” said Akhbar al-Youm, adding “security agencies arrested several of those officials and investigation is underway.” A few weeks ago, media reports talked about ‘mysterious’ blasts in Mydi port where boats were blown up and Akhbar al-Youm said “the blasts were the result of clashes between the coastguard and individuals aboard those boats who were delivering arms to the Shiite insurgents.”

I was concerned at the time the fishing boats were exploding about a coordinated maritime al Qaeda attack on the NATO fleet in the Gulf of Aden, that is the Yemeni signature, but this convoluted story is much more apt to be likely.

Update: Parliament questions al Alimi who says maybe the ship went to Somalia and the weapons will be smuggled to Yemen from there.

Original Post: Actually it makes as much sense one way or the other, whether the shipment from Faris Manna (and the Defense Ministry) ultimately goes to the rebels or al Qaeda. I wrote in 2005 that Yemen was a primary weapons supplier to jihaddi groups all over the region- from Saudi to Gaza and lots of places in Africa. Later the Yemeni government promised (!!) to stop using brokers to buy and sell weapons. It was a big announcement, warmly welcomed by the US. But like nearly every and all announcements by the Yemeni regime, it lacked substance.

Following up on our earlier post, about Sa’ada mediator Faris Manna importing a shipload of Chinese weapons with forged documements from Yemen’s Defense Ministry: they can’t find the ship. Its in the port, left the port or never entered the port, one of those.

Yemen Post The debate over a suspected ship carrying Chinese-made weapons anchored in the port of Hodeida province in western Yemen heated up on Wednesday, with Parliament setting a deadline of next Monday for the government to submit a comprehensive report on the ship. (Read on …)

And its a darned good question. Follow up to the story: Yemen appoints weapons smuggler as governmental peace negotiator and gets mad when he sells the rebels a ship load of Chinese arms using “forged” documents from the Defense Ministry.

Sahwa Net – Over 29 MPs demanded in a parliamentary session held on Sunday to summon the defense minister Mohamad Nasser Mohammad to ask him about a Chinese ship loaded with weapons held in Hodeida airport. (ed- Earlier reports said it sailed away but apparently its still there.)

A Russian TV channel said that the ship belongs to Faris Mana’a, brother of Saada governor. (Read on …)

YO

Security authorities in Hodeidah province announced the arrest of an al-Qaeda affiliate in the west of Yemen last Sunday. The information center of the Ministry of the Interior said that the arrested terrorist was detained for his involvement in the suicide attack that targeted a South Korean group on the road to Sana’a airport on the 18th of March. The suicide attack resulted in the death of the suicide bomber but no other casualties.

The arrested terrorist was identified as A.M. al-A’ameri. Security authorities said al-A’ameri had links to the suicide bomber, Khalid al-Dhayani, and also had links to al-Qaeda high profile member Qasim al-Raimi, who is classified as one of the most dangerous terrorists affiliated to al-Qaeda.

The authorities added that al-A’ameri had been tracked down in a number of Yemeni provinces until security authorities were finally able to capture him in Hodiedah and hand him over to the concerned bodies in the capital Sana’a to refer him to justice.

Security authorities said on Sunday that a terrorist affiliated to al-Qaeda was killed in a blast caused by an explosive device he was preparing to use for a terrorist operation in al-Wadhea’ district of Abyan province in the south of Yemen.

According to the 26 September website, security authorities in Abyan province said that the terrorist’s name was Anwar Mohammed al-Tughaishi, which was included on the wanted list of known terrorists, and that he was tracked down by the security bodies charged with the capture of those affiliated with the al-Qaeda organization, and those suspected of planning and carrying out terrorist operations.

By the end of April, security authorities said that they captured two suspected al-Qaeda members in Aden. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the two captured were A.Y.D. and M.H.S and that they were captured in the Dar Sa’ad district of Aden, adding that the investigative authorities have begun investigations of the two suspects in preparation to present them to justice.

A few days following the attacks that targeted South Korean tourists in Hadramout province and the South Korean group in Sana’a, security bodies had announced the capture of 16 al-Qaeda suspects, ten of whom were captured in Shabwa province in the southeast of Yemen. The ten are believed to be members of the Qasim al-Raimi cell. The other six were members of another suicide terrorist cell that planned 12 terrorist attacks targeting oil facilities, tourist attractions, and other foreign and local interests.

Al-Qaeda had previously threatened to target security personnel in Yemen and promised to multiply suicide operations in the country. However, the Yemeni Ministry of Interior has responded to the al-Qaeda threats by saying that they were only an attempt to attain media coverage. Interior Ministry leadership described the Al-Qaeda threat to target security officials as also solely to gain attention, adding that the Interior Ministry is not paying much attention to threats such as these.

The information center of the Interior Ministry also published a statement in which it affirmed that the threat released by Al-Qaeda was only a desperate attempt to dissuade security services from pursuing Al-Qaeda elements.

Yemeni security and military forces launched an offensive which lasted several days and resulted in the capture of over 59 Jihadists in Abyan province in the south of Yemen last April. The security bodies said that they concluded investigations with 17 of the arrested Jihadists and would refer them to justice on charges of terrorism, sabotage, hijacking, looting, and attacks on security and governmental facilities. They also revealed that the investigations proved that they were affiliated with terrorist organizations.