Armies of Liberation

No wonder they banned text message news alerts, the good slice of the citizenry might have actually been informed.CN

Yemen’s vibrant cellular market will reach 10.5 million subscribers by end of 2012, a cellular penetration rate of 42.4%, fueled in part by the entrance of a 4th mobile operator at the end of last year, says a new report from the Arab Advisors Group.

The Government of Yemen also fully owns and directly oversees the operations of the monopoly fixed line operator, Public Telecommunications Corporation (PTC), and owns a controlling stake in the CDMA cellular operator, Yemen Mobile, through the PTC.

The Arab Advisors Group projects Yemen’s mainlines to reach 1.432 million lines by end of 2012 with a penetration rate of 5.76%. This corresponds to a CAGR of 7.1% between 2008 and 2012. This growth is expected to be mainly through the PTC’s efforts to provide fixed line services in the rural areas of Yemen.

“The Arab Advisors Group projects Yemen’s cellular lines to continue its healthy growth. With the entry of the fourth cellular operator in Yemen, the Arab Advisors Group projects Yemen’s cellular market to grow at a CAGR of 15.7% from 2008 to 2012, reaching 10.537 million subscribers (a cellular penetration rate of 42.4%) up from 4.437 million by end of 2007.” Mr. Hussam Barhoush, Arab Advisors senior research analyst of Arab Advisors Group wrote in the report.

IRIN

SANAA, 14 August 2008 (IRIN) - Water availability in Yemen has been worsening by the year and the government has no clear strategy on how to deal with the problem, experts have said.

They say water shortages, which affect about 80 percent of the country’s 21 million people, are exacerbated by the high fertility rate, rapid urbanisation, the cultivation of `qat’ (a mild narcotic), a lack of public awareness, and the arbitrary digging of wells.

The experts made the remarks at a symposium on 12 August in Sanaa city organised by the Sheba Centre for Strategic Studies (SCSS), a local think-tank. Entitled Water Security in Yemen: Challenges and Solutions, the symposium brought together dozens of local officials and experts on water.

Khalil al-Maqtari, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and an expert of topography, said the water situation was worsening as there was no effective strategy to manage its use.

(Read on …)

SAMA first training aircraft arrives to Aden

ADEN, Aug. 10 (Saba)- The first training aircraft model SAMA (2020) operating by one engine arrived on Sunday at Aden International Airport.

Director General of the academy captain Ameen Ghanem said to Saba that this aircraft is one of four aircrafts to be sent to Aden after an agreement with Jordanian manufacturing plant Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI).

Ghanem mentioned that in the upcoming days the air academy will be launched officially in Aden in the wake of completing all technical processes.

Turkish investors to market JAI’s Sama 2020 training and surveillance aircraft in Turkey

Jordan Times
AMMAN (JT) - Jordan Aerospace Industries (JAI) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Turkish investors to market its Sama 2020 training and surveillance aircraft in Turkey. Following the marketing operations, the company will start a programme to manufacture the surveillance aircraft in Turkey where the aircraft will be equipped with Turkish-made communication and surveillance equipment. The MoU, signed by Turkish businessman Ahmet T. Ozal and JAI Director General and Chief Executive Officer Muayad Al Samaraee, was the outcome of business talks between the two sides, and a visit by Turkish business investors to the company’s plant, located at Queen Alia International Airport. Established in 2001, the JAI is still the only private certified light aircraft manufacturer in the Middle East. 4 August 2008

from The Economist:

A fantastic plan to span the Red Sea’s troubled waters is raising eyebrows

ONE OF Osama bin Laden’s many half-brothers, Tarek bin Laden, this week signed a deal with tiny Djibouti which may—or may not—mark the start of one of the world’s boldest engineering projects. Djibouti’s president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, promised Mr bin Laden 500 sq km (193 sq miles) of land to start building Noor City, the first of a hundred “Cities of Light” the vast Saudi Binladen Group plans around the world. “A hope for all humanity, the first environmental city of the 21st century,” gushed the promotional video at the signing. The audience, mostly American military contractors near retirement age, clapped enthusiastically. Engineers elsewhere say the scheme is a fantasy.

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

In its report, the Local Authority and Services Committee at Shoura Council revealed that 43 percent of Yemen’s population are still deprived of electricity.

The average electricity consumption for a Yemeni person does not exceed 400 kilowatts per hour. In addition, half of major power plants lifespan have either ended or are about to end.

According to the report, the existing power stations, including private sector’s stations, working by oil derivatives cost 1,200 percent higher than the cost of generating with natural gas.

The committee disclosed that Ras Katheeb Steam Station has well passed its virtual work age, and is not able anymore to work in the future, adding that the Unit II in the station had completed 70,701 working hours on December 31, 2007. The third unit completed 81,036 of use during the same date; while both stations have not been maintained yet.

However, the report indicated that the quantity of gas available is 1.2 trillion cubic feet which is less than the required quantity demanded for the two power stations in Safer.

“Electricity power is one of the basic requirements for achieving economic and social development, revitalizing private investments and human development, industrial sector development and other economic services,” pointed out Parliament Member Naji Ahmed Ateeq.

“It provides people with an indirect role in creating employment and poverty alleviation. It also reduces burden on women, especially in rural areas,” he added.

According to the Local Authority and Services Committee, the capital Sana’a came in first place as for consumption with 250,000 homes linked. However, the committee pointed out the Electricity Corporation finds big difficulties in getting influential people and Sheikhs to pay their electricity bills, as some bills have reached over a half million YR.

(Read on …)

Two generators in Saada to reinforce main station power
SABA

[28 July 2008]

SANA’A, July 28 (Saba) - Under the urgent solutions to reconstruct Saada governorate, two power generators amounting to $1.2 million arrived in Saada on Monday to reinforce the power of the main station of Qahzah.

The two generators that generate 3,000 KW of power would contribute to raise the station’s capacity that would activate the development process in the governorate, Saada governor Hassan Mana’a said during his visit to the station.

Mana’a expressed his gratitude to the station administration and staff as they kept on feeding the governorate with power in spite of the exceptional circumstances the governorate has witnessed.

The new generators will enter service in two weeks, the Deputy Minister of Electricity Adel Thamaran said, adding that they would cover 50 percent of the Station’s power deficit.

He said that the ministry has commenced several procedures to strengthen the power capacity in the province such as purchasing spare parts for generators at the station to be backed to service at a cost of $ 750,000 in a month.

The ministry has also put a tender for a project to establish another power station with a capacity of 15 MW at a cost of $ 20 Million, Thamaran said.

IRIN

SANAA, 28 July 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Saada Governorate, northern Yemen, have not been able to return home after their houses were destroyed in recent fighting between government forces and Shia rebels, local sources have said.

The long-running conflict, which started in 2004, has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.

“There are still thousands displaced because their houses were destroyed,” Salem Mohammed, an IDP in Saada city, told IRIN. He said some IDPs were worried fighting could flare up again and preferred to stay in the six IDP camps which have been set up in and around Saada city, or with host families.

The destruction of farms and infrastructure during the recent fighting, which began in May and lasted 70 days, had also driven many farmworkers from the land, aid agencies said.

Most government officials in Saada were unwilling to comment, but Saada Governor Hassan Manna said 70 percent of the displaced families had returned to their homes over the past few days.

Sporadic clashes

Meanwhile, some people in Saada city told IRIN minor clashes had erupted between followers of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the Shia rebel leader, and government forces in the mountains.

Al-Houthi’s Information Office on 26 July said the army had opened fire on a pregnant woman and killed her as she tended sheep in Allaf Valley. In a separate statement on 24 July, it said the army had opened fire on displaced families returning to their homes, killing one person and injuring another. The army had also shot dead a child while he was tending sheep in Bani Moaath District, it said.

The Information Office has denied press reports that two Sunni mosques were destroyed by al-Houthi fighters in Dahyan District. According to local media, the two mosques were destroyed on 23 July by armed men. The authorities have not commented on the destruction of the mosques.

Cabinet forms committee

On 22 July the Cabinet formed a committee, chaired by Local Administration Minister Abdul-Qader Hilal, to assess the damage and reconstruction efforts in Saada Governorate.

At a meeting on 27 July the committee formed two teams - one to assess damage to private property, and the other to assess damage to public utilities.

Hilal said development projects, which had stalled since 2004, would start in areas not affected by the fighting, and that reconstruction was contingent on peace and stability.

News Yemen

DJIBOUTI, NewsYemen

Chairman of the Middle East Development Company, Tarek Mohammed Bin Laden, half-bother of Osama bin Laden, said that “competition on building a bridge across the Red Sea to link Africa with the Arabian Peninsula is going on”.

In a press conference held on Monday in Djibouti on launching the project and attended by Djibouti’s Prime Minister Deleita Mohammed Deleita, Bin Laden said the project, to be implemented in five years, will absorb one million Yemeni workers and 500,000 Djiboutian.

Bin Laden talked about contacts with international investors who will join the project and said the bridge would be “a historical engineering design that will help revive for economics in Africa and Middle East.”

Executive engineer in the Annor Holding Company Mohammed Ahmad al-Ahmad said the plan for establishing two cities, to be called Madinat An Nor, one in the Yemeni side and the other will be in the Djiboutian side, and linking them by the bridge was implemented.

“International investors used to invest in markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China, but now they have to know the emerging markets are in Middle East and Africa. The two cities to be linked with the bridge will support economic growth in such markets for the upcoming generations”, said al-Ahmad.

Djibouti Prime Minister Deleita said at the conference that the project of linking Djibouti to Yemen by a hanging bridge “will change traditional ways of traveling between Asia and Africa”. He said that million of Muslims in Africa will be able to get to the holy places easily through the bridge.

Known as “the bridge of the century”, the project will start in 2009.

It would include a motorway and rail links, and two luxury cities would be built on either side of the Red Sea.

Sheikh Tarek Mohammed bin Laden, 60, has so far won backing and pledges of land from the presidents of both countries after shuttling between the capitals in his private jet in recent weeks, outlining his plans.

In an interview posted on the project’s website, he talked of his vision, saying the city to be built on the Djibouti coast and called Madinat An Nor (City of Light) would create 100,000 jobs and stretch more than 970sqkm.

The bridge, spanning the strait of Bab el Mandeb (Gate of Tears), which owes its name to its perilous waters, would take nine years to build and cost $23.4billion.

Designs show a 3.2km viaduct from the Yemeni coast to the island of Perim, where it passes for another 3.2km before a final 21km stretch to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. This will have as its centrepiece a 12.8km suspension bridge towering above the sea. Up to 100,000 cars and 50,000 train passengers a day would be able to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

More than 200 businessmen and 60 journalists from Yemen and other Arab countries attended the conference.

The war that al-Khaiwani wrote about, which got him imprisoned, is supposedly over. The Yemeni president called the rebel leader and its done. Hopefully, they will release al-Khaiwani now that everybody is friends again.

The Yemeni military’s extensive bombing campaign over the last four years has destoyed homes, villages, and infrastructure including schools and water facilities in Yemen’s northern Sa’ada province. The regime is currently calling for the nearly 100,000 people who were driven from their homes by the fighting to return. Quite tragically, many have no place to go anymore. But if it is safe for the people to return then it must be safe enough for the Yemeni government to finally allow access to international aid organizations. Both Doctors Without Borders and the ICRC have deemed the region a humanitarian disaster; however, they haven’t been able to get in to render medicine, food, water and shelter to the displaced families. From Yemen Online.

“End” of War in Yemen: Displaced Residents of Harf Sufian to Return Home
YemenOnline- July 20, 2008- The gubernatorial leaders of Amran met to discuss the return of those displaced by the war against between the government and the Houthi Rebels. Led by the deputy governor of Amran, Saleh Abu Uja, the meeting birthed a committee that would facilitate the return of the displaced citizens. The return of the residents, however, will not be possible without rebuilding the damaged town. The war had left Harf Sufian demolished, as described by many. It was a critical battle ground and an important location that was fought over repeatedly throughout the war. It was captured and recaptured by both sides on several incidents. President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced an end to hostilities on Thursday. However, even after the cease fire fighting still continued in Sadah, casting doubt on how long the peace would last. The rehabilitation of Harf Sufian has symbolic significance. This healing of the country’s war wounds is an important step forward in the peace process.

Flight Global

Yemen’s Felix Airways has ordered eight Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft, powered by CF34-8C engines. The engine order is valued at more than $90 million and delivery will begin in September 2008. Felix Airways is a new private airline based in Yemen and will operate domestic routes previously served by Yemen Airways together with additional regional routes.

Yemen’s fleet deal

Yemen’s eponymous national flag carrier has selected Pratt & Whitney global service partners for a 10-year, $90-million fleet management programme agreement. The deal covers all engine maintenance and engine health monitoring for the ‘owned’ Airbus A310 aircraft in Yemen Airways’ fleet powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines. Yemen Airways has three owned Airbus A310s in its long-haul fleet, operating from its main base in Sana’a and a hub in Aden. The airline flies to more than 30 destinations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Yemen Observer

Qat chewers are on a steady rise in Yemen, especially amongst young people, where qat chewers constitute 70 percent of men and more than 30 percent of women, said Mansour al-Hawshabi, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

Al-Hawshabi reported this rise during the opening of a workshop on policies for qat in Yemen, which took place in Sana’a on Sunday. “Qat occupies large areas of agricultural land at the expense of many crops, particularly important cereals,” he said.

The prevalence of qat is considered a significant obstacle to lifting the productivity of other crops. Qat plantations are expanding by 4-6 thousand hectares annually, which demand more than 30 percent of the total water resources allocated to agriculture.

Various surveys and studies show that 85 percent of qat cultivation is concentrated in five governorates: Amran, Dhamar, Sana’a, Hajja and Ibb. “Qat does not just pose agricultural and environmental problems, but it is a significant risk to the health of people especially when using pesticides indiscriminately,” said al-Hawshabi.

Qat has become a dilemma facing the expansion of food crops to provide food security, said Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. “It is draining more than 30 percent of the water devoted to agriculture.”

“The spending on qat plants is a priority to people who put it above necessary expenses such as food, education and other important needs,” he said. “The risk indicators of qat have become clear and specific to all and we must sharpen our determination and efforts to address the problem of qat as a major challenge facing agriculture in Yemen.”

The cultivation of qat in Yemen rose from 136,138 hectares in 2006 to 141,163 hectares last year, and its production rose from 147, 444 tons to 156, 290 tons during the same period.

Qat’s popularity in Yemen has led to its excessive cultivation, depleting the country’s agricultural resources. It is estimated that production increases by about 10 to 15 percent every year. Water consumption is so high that groundwater levels in the Sana’a basins are diminishing and are expected to dry out in just a little over 10 years from now.

Dijbouti is a very poor nation as well

Bin Laden Seeks $190 Billion for Yemen, Africa Cities (Update1)

By Will McSheehy and Matthew Brown

June 2 (Bloomberg) — Middle East Development LLC, the Dubai-based construction company controlled by a half-brother of Osama Bin Laden, will seek to raise about $190 billion to build two new cities in Djibouti and Yemen and a bridge linking them.

Tarek Mohammad Bin Laden will provide at least $10 billion of seed financing for the $200 billion project, Issam Halabi, Middle East Development’s vice president of technical affairs, told reporters at a conference organized by the Middle East Economic Digest in Dubai today.

“The Bin Ladens are originally from Yemen, and this is part of Sheikh Tarek’s desire to fight poverty and encourage trade,” Halabi said.

As oil earnings spur economic growth in the Persian Gulf, governments and investors are building new cities to create jobs for the region’s burgeoning population and attract inward investment. The $120 billion King Abdullah Economic City project in Saudi Arabia is the region’s biggest, followed by Kuwait’s $86 billion Silk City project, according to Dubai-based research company Proleads.

Yemen, the poorest Gulf state, faces Djibouti across the Red Sea and has attracted investment from neighbors including Qatar’s state-owned Qatari Diar Real Estate Co. and Dubai-owned port operator DP World Ltd. DP World also has a management contract for Djibouti’s sea port, and last year Dubai-owned investment company Istithmar PJSC bought a stake in the east African state’s Daallo Airlines in a bet on increasing trade and travel between the Gulf and east Africa.

Sea Bridge

Construction of a 28.5 kilometer bridge linking Yemen and Djibouti is due to begin next year and the project will take about 15 years to complete, Halabi said. The bridge is being designed to carry road vehicles, trains, and pipes for gas and water, he said.

The new cities in Yemen and Djibouti are intended to attract manufacturing, technology and leisure ventures, and companies including Bechtel Group Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Ericsson AB have expressed interest in the project, according to Halabi.

Tarek Bin Laden shares the same father as Osama Bin Laden. Mohammed, their late Yemen-born father, emigrated to Saudi Arabia and founded the family’s Saudi Binladin Group construction empire.

Middle East Development has projects in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bahrain and a publicly-traded unit in Singapore, according to its Web site.

The power plant is just to run the steel mill.

Middle East Online

ISTANBUL - Saudi Arabia’s Al-Tuwairqi group confirmed on Tuesday it planned to invest $1 billion in Yemen to build steel and power plants.

Chairman Hilal Al-Tuwairqi said on the sidelines of a steel conference the Yemen steel plant would have a capacity of 5 million tonnes of liquid steel.

“In addition to that, we will build a rolling mill which will produce 1 million tonnes of rebar annually,” he said.

The investment would include installation of a power plant as Yemen lacked the necessary infrastructure, he said.

Yemen’s official news agency, Saba, reported the scale of the investment on March 31 but gave no details of the plants.

Al-Tuwairqi said he expected the plants to be operational by 2011.

April 23 (Bloomberg) — Nagy Ali Mohammed isn’t worried about a water shortage in Yemen. He says God will provide what’s needed for the craggy, volcanic land where he grows khat, a leaf chewed daily by most Yemeni men.

“There is Allah above,” the 50-year-old said as a red truck pumped water into his fields. “There always will be water.”

Yemen will need more than Nagy’s faith in the divine to avert a crisis. The Middle Eastern nation’s addiction to khat is sucking up scarce water resources. Cultivation of the mild stimulant has increased 13-fold in three decades and now uses 30 percent of the nation’s water, according to the World Bank.

Khat is consuming water needed to meet growing demands as the population increases by 3.5 percent annually and people desert the countryside for the city. The capital, Sanaa, won’t have enough water for its more than 2 million inhabitants within two decades, said Ramon Scoble, team leader for a water project run by German aid agency GTZ.

“It is not a matter of if it happens anymore, but a matter of when,” he said.

The water shortage risks exacerbating other challenges faced by the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, which doesn’t have the oil and gas resources of neighboring Saudi Arabia and Oman. A surge in al-Qaeda attacks is driving away tourists. On April 11, the U.S. State Department ordered non-essential embassy employees to leave Sanaa.

Rising commodity prices will accelerate the annual inflation rate to 15 percent this year, the highest in the region, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit report.

Arabia Felix

Called Arabia Felix, or happy Arabia, by the Romans for its abundant natural resources, Yemen now imports as much as 95 percent of its wheat.

“The water shortage is an acute problem,” said Selva Ramachandran of the United Nations Development Program in Sanaa.

The lack of water is likely to change the landscape of the Islamic nation of 19.3 million. Scoble estimated that as much 40 percent of Sanaa residents will have to relocate within 25 years.

Yemeni farmers pump five times more water than is returned to underground basins each year, according to the Ministry of Water and Environment.

Khat, which Yemenis say brings them clarity of thought and humor, is engrained in the local culture. More than 50 percent of Yemeni men chew the leaf every day, according to a World Bank report published last June. Some spend as much as 6 hours a day chewing baseball-sized wads jammed into their cheeks.

One in seven working Yemeni produce and distribute khat, making it the second-largest source of jobs in the country, the World Bank says. It employs more people than the public sector.

Subsidized Fuel

Khat farmer Nagy Ali Mohammed says he isn’t naive enough to say there’s no problem, though there’s little he can do but pray.

“We get our money from khat,” he said.

To irrigate khat, farmers have dug tube wells powered by state-subsidized fuel.

The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is in a bind. While cheap fuel encourages the over-use of water, reducing the subsidies would make it too expensive for farmers to irrigate their fields, said Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hamdi, deputy minister of water and environment.

“The government talks about conserving water, but indirectly the government subsidizes water extraction through fuel subsidies,” al-Hamdi said.

In the past, the government tried to prohibit khat use in public offices and excluded khat farmers from receiving loans for irrigation projects. While police are barred from chewing khat on duty, men in green uniforms smile with wads in their cheeks and guns slung over their shoulders as they search for al-Qaeda members on the roads around Sanaa.

“It is a losing battle,” al-Hamdi said, adding that the government doesn’t have the manpower, training or money to fight the drug.

Wells and Water Jars

In As-Sowdah, a village north of Sanaa that has no electricity, Hindia Ahmed treks 500 meters across the parched earth five or six times a day to reach the local well. When the well runs dry, she must descend into the Amran basin by foot or donkey to collect water trucked in by the government.

“It is difficult and hard work carrying water,” said the 50-year-old woman, with a metal pot balanced on her head. Her black headscarf and green-flowered skirt stand out against the barren landscape. “I always have a backache.”

Households of 8 to 15 people in villages such as As-Sowdah use as little as 40 to 100 liters a day for cooking, drinking and washing, Scoble said. The World Health Organization says each person should have access to 180 liters of water daily.

Inside Bab al-Yemen, the historical gateway to the Old City of Sanaa and along alleys bordered by stone and baked-brick houses, buying khat is a daily ritual. Men wearing pin-striped suit jackets and skirts, with ornate daggers strapped around their waists, haggle over price and quality.

“Khat is the whiskey of Yemen,” said Saleh Amid Qalan, a 32-year-old government employee, standing in a passage next to the seventh century Great Mosque, the country’s oldest.

Yemen Times

The internet was introduced to Yemen in 1990 and according to the latest figures from the Telecommunications Ministry, there are 146,000 internet subscribers nationwide, 822 internet cafés and more than 20 news web sites operating in Yemen.

Still not going to the highest bidder, wonder why?

Yemen Post

In a symposium organized by Al-Tagheer.net, economic experts stressed that government should bring the agreement relating to operating and developing Aden Container Terminal before parliament for discussion, and demanded it to act responsibly with this issue because the terminal is of vital economic importance to the country.

The participants also demanded the government to reconsider all agreements as to operating Aden Container Terminal, hinting all the previous agreements are not binding to the country because they harm its interest.

They further stressed that an international tender for operating Aden Terminal should be announced through which qualified and eligible companies can bid, maintaining that the bidding process should be conducted according to the tenders law, together with presenting it to parliament for approval.

Several papers have been presented during the symposium including one paper by Ayman Mohammed Nasser who pointed out that bidding or buying the government institutions should be referred to parliament for approval and later a republican decree should come next.

Political science professor Abdullah Al-Faqih warned against the new agreement signed with Dubai Ports Authority, stressing the agreement wastes Yemen’s financial rights. He also indicated that partnership of 50 percent of profits is not beneficial, and maintained this could lead other bidding companies to sue the Yemeni government.

Al-Faqih added that the bidding of the three companies was as follows:

1. Kuwaiti alliance with $462 million.

2. Philippines International Services with $451 million.

3. Dubai Ports with $297 million, hinting the best bid was offered by the Kuwaiti company and instead of declaring it as the successful bidder or having negotiations, Yemeni government decided to re-ask for new tenders.

In return, former Member of Parliament Salim bin Talib declared that the government withdrew the agreement from parliament in an effort to pass the agreement away from the parliament‘s control, adding that any agreement like that of Aden Terminal should not be signed only under the approval of parliament.

For his part, Mohamed Abdul Majeed Al-Qubati expressed his sorrow over the appalling situation of Aden Terminal, mainly because of the confused and unclear government policies.

Al-Qubati, however, indicated that Aden can be an international port and cited an American report speaking of the possibility of turning Aden Terminal into the most important free zone in the Middle East.

Economists and MPs demanded the formation of a civil coalition to defend Aden Terminal and maintained that it was a famous port in the past.

Yemeni businessman Saleh bin Fareed Al-Surimah pointed out the eligibility of his company Gulf and Kuwait Coalition Company (KGL) to operate and develop Aden Terminal and hinted that several parties cheated and beguiled in an effort to deprive KGL of it.

Al-Surimah emphasized the agreement with Dubai Ports is invalid and it abuses people’s right, hinting that if those people succeed in passing this dubious deal, this could help corrupted officials to pass the selling of other government institutions like Aden Refinery, etc. in the future.

He also requested President Saleh to act according to his constitutional responsibility to stop what he named as misuse and abuse in Aden Terminal because it does not serve the country’s interests.

I have a tee shirt that says, “Ali Saleh is scared of a blog.” And apparently he really is. In a rather Stalinist reaction to growing civil unrest, Yemen blocked 1126 Yemeni blogs.

Maktoobblog.com, one of the most popular Arab blogging platform, has been recently blocked in Yemen. The OpenNet Initiative testing has confirmed yesterday, through technical investigation, that the blog hosting service has been blocked by Yemennet ISP, a service of the government’s Public Telecommunication Corporation (PTC):

ONI technical investigation verified that the service has been blocked by Yemennet, Yemen’s government-run ISP. Access is blocked to the entire domain maktoobblog.com, effectively to every blog hosted by the service. Interestingly, users who attempt to access the site receive a network error message instead of the standard blockpage, which is served when users attempt to access sexual content.

This significant blocking is expected to hinder Internet users in Yemen from blogging and reading blogs because maktoobblog.com is home of one of the largest blogging communities in the Middle East and North Africa.

People get the network error message for this blog too. My article on internet censorship appeared at the Yemen Times earlier this month.

Almotamar.net, Saba - Yemen has refused Monday to sign an agreement with the United States of America over the installation of two radioactive surveillance stations at Aden and Hodeidah ports.

Well-informed sources were quoted by almotamar.net as saying that a ministerial committee, was formed to look into the matter with help of experts from Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Public Health and Population, Transportation, Higher Education and Scientific Research and Legal Affairs, asked the government not to sign the agreement with the U.S. for the establishment of the surveillance stations because of their bad consequences, affirming the terms of the agreement were in favor of the U.S.

The draft agreement provided that any cooperation between Yemen and any other country in this regard should be under the US observation.

Moreover, the draft agreement was considered as political obligation by Yemen.

In April 2007, the cabinet saw a memorandum submitted by Electricity and Energy Ministry over the installation of two US radioactive surveillance stations at the Aden and Hodeida ports and approved the formation of a committee to look into the matter.

Hasn’t this been under construction for like five years?

Iran, Yemen Discuss Power Cooperation

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian deputy power minister and his visiting Yemeni counterpart in a meeting here in Tehran explored avenues for implementing an agreement held earlier by the two sides on energy cooperation.

According to the agreement signed between the Iranian Transport Stations Company and Yemen Electricity Corporation, the Iranian company would provide assistance in supplying power to the Marib Gas Power Station project.

Also during the meeting, the Yemeni deputy minister handed over a letter from his country’s Electricity and Energy Minister Mustafa Bahran to Iran’s Power Minister Parviz Fattah underlining the need for mutual cooperation in the field of electricity.

The head of the airline is Saleh’s son-in-law.

Defence India

Bombardier Aerospace announced today that Felix Airways of Sana’a, Yemen has signed a firm order for eight Bombardier CRJ700 NextGen airliners, and has taken options on an additional three. Felix Airways is owned by Yemenia (Yemen Airways) and strategic investors.

(Read on …)

Unsurprising in the wake of the mortar attack on the US embassy; however, it is another form of collective punishment.

Mareb Press

The 14 October police station disseminated today a circular to most of the internet cafes’ owners including closing the internet café at 12 am and banning use of internet by children during day or night with pretext of using the internet by suspicious people and children.

The director of police station stressed on the necessity of implementing and committing on this circular saying those will not implement it, they will have to hold the responsible for that.

“The customers should bring their identification cards with them in order to enter the internet café,” he said.

The officer of Rights and Liberties in Lawyers Syndicate, Mohammed al-Maswari, said in press released a copy of which was obtained by Mareb Press, this represent a clear restriction for the liberties and rights of citizens and businessmen.

He demanded for investigation about this. He wondered whether a police station can issued such circulars without any legal verdict.

Eyewitness said that a number of policemen started yesterday evening closing some internet cafes in Sana’a city at 1am.

Meanwhile Saleh declares March 19 as “Yemeni Media Day” and someone issues a statement on behalf of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YSJ) praising the president; however it wasn’t the YSJ. The YSJ was busy having a rally in support of journalist Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani who is falsely charged with terrorism, while as we know, the terrorists are nearly all free whether or not they were sentenced to jail.

Al-Khiwani has highly appreciated the support of his colleagues, but urged all who have concerns about freedom of opinion to not abandon their legal struggle to get more freedom and break through all restrictions the authorities want to impose on press. He confirmed he would continue fight for his liberty and opinion.

Yemen Post:

In his report submitted recently to parliament, Prime Minister Ali Mujawar assured that subsidies of oil and its derivatives take up two thirds of state budget while poor citizens’ benefit from its derivatives do not exceed 22 percent.

Though national economy achieved a 5.6 growth in 2005, Mujawar’s report mentioned that there was economic decline in 2006 and 2007 wherein the annual growth was just 3.2 percent.

Mujawar attributed this decline to the decrease of revenues of gas and oil estimated at 8.3 percent and 12.2 percent respectively, noting that Yemen’s produced quantity of crude oil dropped off during 2007 to reach 117 million barrels instead of 146 million in 2005.

Likewise, the growth of national investments saw a decline estimated at 3.6 percent in 2006 though it was 14.4 percent in 2005, namely because of decrease in the general investments. Similarly, foreign investments in Yemen decreased from 49.4 percent to 45 percent, dealing another blow to the country, as it tries to convince foreign investors to invest in Yemen.

Meanwhile, Mujawar pointed out that state’s reliance on oil and gas will have negative effects at the midterm, while the current and investment expenditures will increase.

He as well convinced parliament members to endorse numerous production sharing agreements without being studied adequately, hinting there is a necessity now to attract foreign capital to invest in gas and oil sectors including an agreement with Yemen General Corporation for Oil in bloc No. 39 at Al-Mahara province’s Damghot area.

Minister of Transport and Marine Affairs Khalid Ibrahim Al-Wazeer blamed the increase of oil prices, mainly plane fuels, for the losses of Yemeni Airways (Yemenia) over the years 2005 and 2006.

Al-Wazeer added that operational expenditures of Yemenia, which has 10 aircrafts of different sizes, mounted to YR 34 billion and the operational loss was YR 2.5 billion for the same year, while state subsidies for some internal destination like Al-Ghaidah and Socotra reached about YR 400 million and the loss calculated before taxation was YR 92 million.

In 2005, the operational expenditures rose to YR 43 billion and the operational loss YR 3.5. State subsidies for Al-Ghaidhah and Socotra reached YR 300 million and the losses of the same year before taxes are YR 2 billion.

Operational expenditures of 2006 mounted to YR 47 billion and the losses were YR 5 billion.

According to Al-Wazeer, the company made a small profit in 2004 and small losses in 2005 and 2006. He also mentioned that the increase of aircraft fuels and surplus employers are key reasons for loss, hinting that each aircraft has 350 employees.

He also added that there is a small profit in 2007 and these profits will appear as soon as the chartered accountant ends his revision.

Yemen’s share in Yemenia reaching 51 percent is distributed according to the company’s law as 35 percent is allocated for Tax Authority and the remaining percentage is allocated to Finance Ministry.

Agreement of setting up company to operate Aden Containers Port signed

[09 March 2008]

DUBAI, March 09 (Saba)- General Corporation for Aden Ports and Dubai Ports International (DPI) signed on Sunday an agreement of setting up a joint company to operate Aden Containers Port.

Chairman of the corporation Mohammed Mubarak and executive director of DPI Mohammed Sharaf signed the agreement.

Last December, the cabinet approved establishment of the company.

Dirty water claims more victims. this disease comes from dirty water. Other victims of dirty water include babies dying from diarrhea, girls who spend all day lugging water instead of being in school, people who spend their food money on water, and those infected with other diseases. 90% of tribal disputes and violence arise initially from water issues. There is a water plan but the ministries won’t coordinate.

Mareb Press

The Director of Tehama Development Authority, Abdul Rahman AlSaqaf, revealed that new animals have been affected by myiasis which is caused by screwworm fly, in Hudeidah province.

Al-Saqaf said, “Some new cases of screw-worm larvae infections appeared among the livestock in Dhaha district, south of Al-Hudiadh province.”

He made it clear that the office of agricultural ministry in the province and Tehama Development Authority sprayed parasiticides in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading.

The independent NewsYemen website quoted the head of the Epidemic Monitoring Center, Sultan al-Maqtary, as saying that there were infections among human beings. He stressed that the center has taken the necessary procedures for emergency.

The Ministry of Agriculture has warned that more than 8,000 livestock in three of the country’s provinces have been affected by myiasis.

The fatal disease has been found in 838 villages in Sa’ada and Hajjah provinces and at least five villages in Hudeidah province in north-west Yemen since it first appeared in the country in December 2007, the ministry added.

(Read on …)

Its just going to get worse as oil revenue continues to decrease. From the Yemen Observer

News of a British company’s intention to cut off the electricity supply to some governorates was denied by Dr. Mustafa Buhran, Minister of Electricity and Energy. The Minister confirmed that the published news goes back to a previous dispute, and was obtained by a newspaper correspondent who either negligently published it, or published it with the intention of creating public unrest.

The Minister declined to speak about the agreement’s details, yet he mentioned that the agreement regarding electricity lease contracts was signed by the previous government, adding that the issue of debts had been dealt with.

Sources from the electricity corporation spoke of contracts with a temporary, off-shore electricity company for the sum of $3.5 million per month, to deal with current shortages.

Media news said that the British electricity-generating company had threatened the Yemeni electricity ministry with disconnecting the supply to six cities if they did not pay the outstanding amount owing of $7.5 million. Reports spoke of a British company by the name of Jericho, that has been supplying parts of Aden governorate, Hodeidah, Hadramout, Amran, Taiz and Sayoun with electricity according to a contract between the company and the ministry for the past year.

Sources attributed the company’s measures to the Yemeni corporation’s failure to pay the sum of YR1.5 billion ($7.5 million) for electricity supply for the months of December and January.

Some reports disclosed that the Yemeni Ministry of Electricity and Energy and its corporation are suffering hard times, as evidenced by their failure to pay the British company, which sells huge amounts of electricity used in lighting and operating industrial plants in the previously mentioned areas.

Critics of the electricity ministry said that it could have supplied these cities with power by building two generating stations at the cost of $60 million, instead of paying that same amount to the British company for a one year supply.

Yemen suffers a 30 percent deficit in electricity supply, due to the expansion of urban areas in addition to the demand for energy from rural areas and projects. It signed a contract with the British company in mid-2006 to supply the six areas with power.

Dr. Buhran told the Parliament that the Ministry’s revenues do not cover the cost of electricity production, because the revenue rate is less than 25 percent of the cost. “The government pays a subsidy to cover this deficit,” the Minister said.

Update: more than 3 million people (out of 20 million Yemenis) infected. Thank goodness for the WHO. It is caused by dirty water.

Yemen Times: SANA’A, Feb. 20 — In cooperation with international organizations, Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population will conduct a four-year campaign to fight Bilharzia, Phase one of which will launch next month.

“Bilharzia is a forgotten disease that’s not a global issue,” WHO representative in Yemen Ghulam Rabbani stated Wednesday, indicating that Yemen and Sudan are the only Middle Eastern nations still suffering the disease. For this reason, WHO is conducting this campaign in Yemen.

“Bilharzia leads to incurable liver failure and, effectively, death,” Rabbani said, adding that several Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Afghanistan that suffered from the disease have succeeded in eradicating it completely through such campaigns and distributing anti-Bilharzia medicine to those infected.

“Just like it has succeeded in eradicating smallpox and polio, Yemen also can succeed in eradicating Bilharzia,” Rabbani stated.

According to WHO statistics, more than three million people in Yemen are infected with the disease, which means significant humanitarian and economic losses.

(Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb. 11 —Abud Al-Rahman Fathl, Minister of Water & the Environment, said last week that the water treatment station in Sana’a district has undergone damages due to a hazardous waste leak into the sanitation facilities.

The minister, who spoke in a Parliament session about the procedures taken by the government to treat water waste in Sana’a, especially in the Bani Al-Hareth district, confirmed that the workers at the water treatment station faced many difficulties because a great amount of oil and waste from factories, slaughterhouses, and hospitals flows into the groundwater treated in the sanitation facilities. He claims the problem has existed for the last five years.

According to the minister, the contamination, which is in Sana’a’ Basin in the Bani Al-Hareth district, has consequences. For example, he stated that the water is often not fully treated because the station is not able to remove all of the harmful elements in it, and even after treatment, the quality of water is still poor, full of water-borne diseases and not suitable for drinking.

(Read on …)

YEMEN: Sanitation services limited, sewage treatment plants poor 05 Mar 2008 16:29:11 GMT
Source: IRIN

SANAA, 5 March 2008 (IRIN) - Sanitation services in Yemen are limited. Almost all villages in rural areas, where 75 percent of Yemen’s 21 million people live, still use traditional means: Sewage is either dumped in watercourses or piped onto open ground.

According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2007-8, 43 percent of the population used improved sanitation, implying connection to a public sewer, connection to a septic tank system, pour-flush latrines, simple pit latrines or ventilated improved pit latrines.

The UNDP figures indicate an improvement over recent years: The official 2004 population census showed that only 15.9 percent of Yemeni households had access to a sanitary network (implying piped sewage only). Of the houses not connected to sanitation networks, 26.8 percent had covered holes for gathering excreta, 16.6 percent had uncovered holes, and 37.1 percent had nothing.

Officials at the Ministry of Water and Environment said the government was striving to improve sanitation services, but lacked funds.

Saleh al-Hakimi, a senior adviser with the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) office in Yemen, said Yemen was unlikely to achieve the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goal (MDG - halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015) unless significant further efforts were made. “The government of Yemen is making efforts to provide sanitation services but these efforts are not sufficient,” he said, adding that the lack of adequate sewage treatment plants was leading to groundwater contamination.

The UN has also said Yemen is not on track to meet the sanitation MDG.

Rural areas

Ahmed al-Soufi, an information officer at the National Water and Sanitation Foundation (NWSF), a government body under the Ministry of Water and Environment, told IRIN that in rural areas, human waste was often collected in open places near people’s homes.

“Special tanks then carry the human waste to unpopulated areas,” he said, adding that the lack of sanitation services led to health problems like diarrhoeal diseases. He said these areas had no sewage treatment plants.

Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hamdi, deputy minister of water and environment, told IRIN that in rural areas sanitation services were also difficult to set up due to varied geographical and geological conditions.

“People in rural areas do not use as much water as in urban areas. It is difficult to set up sanitation services in mountainous areas. Most villages consist of a few houses and it is difficult to establish sewage treatment facilities in each village,” he explained.

Sewage treatment plants ineffective

Salem Mohammed, head of GAPE’s Epidemic Surveillance Department, told IRIN that in the 1990s there was bacterial pollution because of waste sewage being dumped outside cities. “But sewage treatment plants solved the problem only to some extent,” he said. Their location was often inappropriate as they were close to residential areas.

Ali Abdullah al-Dhabhani, head of the Toxins and Wastes Department at the General Authority for Protecting the Environment (GAPE), told IRIN that hospital and medical laboratory waste is treated at sewage works. This waste contains dangerous chemical substances, bacteria and viruses, he said, adding: “Unfortunately, sometimes farmers use such waste water to irrigate their crops.”

Al-Dhabhani warned that water treated at sewage works, which also often processed medical waste and waste from abattoirs, was not fit for irrigating crops owing to chemical contamination. The lack of water was also a problem as it meant the concentration of toxic chemicals remained high.

“Health risks include cholera, diarrhoeal diseases and typhoid,” GAPE’s Mohammed said, adding that sewage plants were “sub-standard”.

Sewage treatment plants are found only in the big cities, like Sanaa, Aden, Taiz, and al-Hudeidah. According to al-Dhabhani, Sanaa’s sewage works was designed in the 1980s and opened in 1999, but never designed to cater for a city of around 2.5 million people.

Bad cement?

Donor aid has limited impact in Yemen due to corruption and administrative incompetence.

SABA’A, Jan. 30 (Saba) - A delegation from the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) has visited the project of Dhamar-al-Hhusainia road to get acquainted with the failure reasons of the project’s implementation.

The delegation accompanied by the deputy minister of public works Abdul-Wahab al-Hakem was briefed on the implementation progress of the project and reviewed the difficulties and the means of overcoming them.

The delegation and the contractor agreed on completing the project within a specified timetable ends in the mid of July 2009.

The 257 km-length road project from Dhamar to al-Husainia is implemented by the Yemeni Rehab company and the Turkish Norak company at a cost of $38 million, 88 percent of which financed by the AFESD.

Good factual article

Yemen-DPI partnership: where to now? By: Arafat Mudabish

Following several years of unresolved issues regarding the fate of Aden Port, Yemen’s government recently agreed with Dubai Ports International, or DPI, which operates the United Arab Emirate’s Jebel Ali Port in addition to several other ports in the area and around the world, to establish a 50-50 Yemen-UAE joint venture to run Aden Port.

This partnership comes three years after the Yemeni government twice invited international bidding to operate the port. According to the government announcement published at that time, the Tender Assessment Committee found that the bid from Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., or KGL, was more feasible for the Yemeni government in the long run, whereas DPI’s bid was more feasible in the short term.

According to government documents, a consulting firm Yemen’s government appointed to manage the tender process recommended the short-term option – DPI’s bid – although expected revenues were no better than those expected from the Kuwaiti firm’s bid.

The issue stirred much public controversy at that time, with talk of a “suspicious” deal between the consulting firm and pro-DPI state officials involved in the tender. Some pointed to a conflict of interest between Aden Port and others DPI operates, i.e., Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, Djibouti Port, Oman’s Salalah Port and Jeddah Port’s South Terminal.

(Read on …)

Yemen Times

- Khab Forum in Jawf province denounces involvement of armed forces in political conflicts

The Khab Forum, made up of citizens from Al-Jawf governorate, urged the authority to review the administrative division of their district, which turned to have one local council instead of two in the past, the weekly reported. It went on to say that the forum released a statement, of which it obtained a copy, denouncing behavior of the employment committee in the governorate that sold their district’s share of job opportunities to other areas although the district has qualified applicants for such job vacancies.

The forum insisted that the governorate authorities must investigate the officials who sold their district’s share of job opportunities to other areas and give the district’s locals a top priority in recruitment, particularly as Khab is the largest and most populous district in the governorate. Participants also urged the government to provide their district with more projects and public services for its being the largest and most populous in the remote province.

According to Al-Sahwa weekly, locals of Khab and Shaghaf districts appealed to Al-Jawf governor to immediately finish implementation of Al-Buqe’- Hazm Road, as well as connect the district villages with the public highway and set up a deadline for finishing the work. The forum denounced involvement of government troops in political conflicts between locals and the government, urging the relevant authorities to do justice in the distribution of service and social insurance projects.