Armies of Liberation

CH: Anti-government protests in Yemen are complicating Nexen’s efforts to renew its licence for the country’s Masila oilfield.

Nexen may lose its licence for Yemen’s Masila oilfield to a local operator, officials in Yemen said, as the Canadian company’s efforts to renew the deal are hindered by political turmoil and the government’s urgent need for cash. (Read on …)

WB Suspends $542 Million to Instable Yemen Yemen Post:

The World Bank suspended hundreds of millions of USD in aid to Yemen as from July 28 due to the political and security situation as the dueling protests and associated severe crises continue across the republic.

Independent sources cited a WB statement as saying that the decision came in harmony with the Bank’s rules that call for such a procedure in complicated circumstances to avoid negative impacts on its programme course in any country.

The Bank is sponsoring 21 projects in Yemen with $882 million, $542 million out of which has not been released yet, the source reported, citing the statement as saying that the Bank will be ready to resume its activities normally in the country when the situation returns normal.

There are many ways to skin a cat apparently. In 2010, South Africa sold about R 8.3 million or over 1 million dollars in weapons to Yemen. However no Ratel armored vehicles were sold. Ratel vehicles shown in Yemen in pictures by Reuters show the pro-change or defected military in possession of them currently. The armored carriers were likely shipped to Yemen in violation of their end use certificates. They appear to be converted versions of the South African Ratel carrier produced in Jordan by the Paramount Group, in co-operation with the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB). Additionally, Saleh opened his own bullet and tank factories in the last few years.

CAPE TOWN — South African- manufactured Ratel armoured infantry carriers have been photographed in strife-torn Yemen, leading the Democratic Alliance (DA) to call for an investigation by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The Ratels were apparently being operated in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, by soldiers who had defected to protesters demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.

The presence of the vehicles either means SA authorised their export or that another country sold Ratels to Yemen, which would constitution a violation of the end- user certificate. (Read on …)

Safer was established as a state corporation after the Yemeni government threw out Hunt Oil. Safer has been a center of mass corruption since then. By dissolving Safer and establishing a new National Petroleum Company, the state is destroying the records proving corruption, embezzlement and smuggling. Next it will be the Fisheries and the Military Economic Corp. (which is known as the Economic Corp now). This can’t go unchallenged. No documents means no trial.

SABA

aretaker Govt transmits bill of National Petroleum Co. to Parliament
[29 / March 2011]

SANA’A, March 29 (Saba) – The cabinet of the caretaker government referred on Tuesday a bill of the National Petroleum Company to Parliament for discussion and completion of constitutional procedures for the issuance of the law.

The bill, reviewed by a ministerial committee, consists of 32 articles divided into six chapters, including naming, definitions, the establishment of the National Petroleum Company and determining its functions, powers, capital, resources and board of directors, the advantages and exemptions and the final provisions.

The bill stipulated the creation of a national petroleum company to replace the current SAFER E & P Operations Company. The new company has a legal personality with financial and administrative independence and is subjected to the supervision and control of Minister of Oil and Minerals.

Yemen Post

Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi has urged donors to pump $ 6 billion in aid to Yemen over the next five years to help it meet the demands of the anti-government protesters and sit-inners. (Read on …)

Al Shameri is a very interesting guy, close to Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, with a lot of connections to disparate groups. Supposedly al Shamari was carrying a half million dollars to dole it out to Yemeni students in Egypt but that’s unbelievable.

New Age: Yemen’s ambassador to Egypt was robbed by gunmen, who stole about 594,000 dollars in cash, security sources told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday. (Read on …)

The desperate scrambling of a desperate man. Tactics that worked before won’t again:

Saleh directs Govt to expand social security network [31/1/2011

SANA’A, Jan.31(Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh directed the government on Monday to expand the network of social security by adopting 0.5 million cases of families in need in light of the results of the field survey carried out by the concerned body. (Read on …)

Its like watching a slow motion car crash and everyone is shouting, turn the wheel.

Yemen’s Economy to Collapse within Two Years – Gulf Official Warns
Yemen Post Staff

Yemen’s economy is expected to collapse within two years in case the inflation and job rates continue to increase amid a sharp decline in oil production whose revenues bring in about two thirds of the country’s income, a Gulf official has warned.

Abdul Aziz al Owaishiq, Director of the Economic Integration Department at the Gulf Cooperation Council, was quoted by Al-Hayat Newspaper as saying in a lecture in Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday that the GCC and donor annual aid to Yemen, about $ 1.2 billion, is now frozen because of the ‘administrative inefficiency and weaknesses’. (Read on …)