Yemen

National name

Al- Jumhuriyah al-Yamaniyah

Government

Parliamentary republic.

Geography

Formerly divided into two nations, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen and the Yemen Arab Republic, the Republic of Yemen occupies the southwest tip of the Arabian Peninsula on the Red Sea opposite Ethiopia and extends along the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Historical Background

North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

Capital

Sana‘a

Government

Presidential System 

-President Ali Abdullah Saleh (GPC) 

-Vice President Abd Al Rab Mansur Al Hadi 

-Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujur (GPC) 

-Deputy Prime Minister Abdulkarim Ismail Al Arhabi

National Language

Spanish

Area

Total 555,000 km2 (49th) 203,849 sq mi               

Population

2009 estimate 23,580,000[1] (51st) 

-July 2007 census 22,230,531              

Currency

Yemeni rial (YER)