Armies of Liberation

The pillaging of the economy continues:

From Chatham House, the full ( PDF report is here):
The recent political crisis in Yemen has created a cycle of hyperinflation, currency depreciation and disruption to the supply of basic goods. This is already having a serious impact on the 10.3 million Yemenis living in poverty, with the prospect of worse conditions to come.

Yemen’s economy is in thrall to a complex, intertwined network of elites that control the oil industry, imports, processing, and packaging and distribution of goods. Many members of these elite groups are key actors in the current crisis. (Read on …)

Where do you think they are reselling the confiscated weapons? Any restrictions on the major weapons dealers and importers yet, no? The black market is a major aspect of the Yemeni economy.

SANAA, Yemen, July 16 (UPI) — Yemen’s Interior Ministry says nearly 293,000 unregistered weapons have been seized since a ban on carrying weapons was instituted in August 2007.

The official Yemeni news agency SABA said the weapons were seized in the capitals of Yemen’s governorates and at security cordon areas.

Deputy Interior Minister Saleh al-Zawari activated the weapon-carrying ban in the governorates of Abyan, Baidha’a, Hadramout, Ibb, Lahj, Mahrah, Mahweet, Abyan, Ibb, Raymah and Taiz.

Zawari said the ban, which he insists will remain in place, has resulted in a decline in the number of land disputes and revenge crimes in Yemen, as well as an overall drop in the country’s crime rates, SABA reported.

Whoa, last time we checked, it was 2 million abroad. What did they do- give out six million bogus passports in the last two years? (The statistical anomaly is not unusual- during the 2006 elections, there were more registered male voters than men. The official unemployment statistics are pretty funny too.) And now the plan is to establish a monitoring system on Yemeni expats… Does Yemen really need 62 embassies; they’re such money pits. There were those big and repeated announcements in 2005 that the regime was going to close some embassies as money saving measures, Romania I think it was, but it never happened. From the Yemen Observer:

Yemen plans to conduct comprehensive surveys for Yemeni expatriates that would focus on their numbers, jobs, families and activities, and their remittances to their homeland. (Read on …)

Amran is where the two YSP leaders (and the baby) were assassinated.

Thousands sentenced for Yemen vote fraud
DPA/Sanaa
Courts in Yemen’s western province of Amran have sentenced 14,522 people to suspended three-month jail terms each for registering to vote multiple times, the state Saba news agency reported yesterday. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

What are the statistics for female child laborers in Yemen?

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor don’t have precise or updated statistics on child labor generally and on girl labor specifically. However, we can say that there are from 400,000 to 800,000 working children in Sana’a. The Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood had conducted a study last year in eight governorates which estimate that there are at least 30,000 spend most of their time in the streets, 60 percent of which work and sleep in the streets. I think that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor intend to conduct a survey in 2009. One thing is for sure, and that is that the number of these girls increases every day.

Over 19000 foreigners worked in Yemen in 2007
SABA

[06 March 2009]
SANA’A, March 06 (Saba) – Newly-issued statistics have showed the number of foreigners who worked in 2007 in Yemen had reached 19155, including 15734 males and 3421 females, while they were 14111 workers in 2006.

The official statistic, issued by the government-run Central Statistical Organisation, explained that Yemen absorbed by the end of 2007 at last 400 Omani workers, 220 Saudi workers, ten UAE workers, seven Kuwaitis and ten workers from both Qatar and Bahrain.

“There were more than 16000 Arabs worked in Yemen in 2007, including 4947 Iraqis, 3082 Egyptians, 1398 Jordanians, 1976 Palestinians, 1506 Sudanese workers, 1125 Somali workers, 947 Syrians, 281 Libyans, 280 Lebanese workers, 160 Moroccans and 80 workers were from both Tunisia and Algeria”, numbered the statistics.

“About 6862 foreigners worked in scientific and caring areas, while 4534 were technicians as the same fields. Meanwhile, 2027 foreigners operated as directors of public and business administrations, followed by more than 1847 workers were engineers. More than 3885 foreigners worked in the fields of sales, services, agriculture, breeding birds and handcrafts”.

The statistics mentioned that the local private sectors embraced 10417 workers and oil companies employed 3613 workers, while universities and education sectors engaged 1611 foreigners, up 1200 were in investment sector and over 2307 foreigners worked for other bodies.

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.

but lets just call them all terrorists:

Yemen Observer

220 out of 1045 terrorist suspects were arrested by the Yemeni police in the year of 2007, according to a recent report issued by the Yemeni Ministry of Interior.

According to the report the 220 detainees were arrested under accusations of being involved in terrorist cases or in other organized and drug crimes. The report also revealed that other thousands of criminals were detained in 2007 for being involved in other different crimes.

The report stated that the security authorities could handle 34,386 crimes out of 36,894 at a rate of 63.2 percent.

According to the same report the number of premeditated crimes dropped by 96 percent compared to the year 2006 due to the firm implementation of the law that banned weapon-carrying in the main cities.

The report also revealed that 812 stolen cars out of 1,173 were brought back to their owners.

In 2007 the Yemeni authorities deported 1,390 Arabs and foreigners living illegally in the country, while more than 27,900 illegal immigrants were caught by the coastguard. The coastguard also registered more than 1,418 cases of smuggling refugees and water pollution cases in 2007. The report also stated that Yemeni authorities have given more than 32,000 residence identity cards for refugees from Africa and other Arab and Asian countries.

The United Nations granted the Yemeni Ministry of Interior its shield for the year 2008 in recognition for the great success it achieved in fighting drugs.