Yemeni Revolution | |||
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Part of the Arab Spring | |||
![]() Protest in Sana'a on 3 February 2011 | |||
Date | 27 January 2011 – 27 February 2012 | ||
Location | Yemen | ||
Caused by |
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Methods |
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Resulted in | Overthrow of Saleh government
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Parties | |||
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Casualties | |||
Death(s) | 2,000 (by 18 March 2012) [13] | ||
Injuries | 22,000 [13] | ||
Arrested | 1,000 [14] |
The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from January to 27 February 2012. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
In early 2012, it was clear President Ali Abdullah Saleh's time in power was drawing to a close. Saleh made several trips abroad during this period as unrest and anger against his regime continued at home, as did shows of support for him. In an uncontested election in which Saleh was not on the ballot, Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi stood for and was elected to the presidency. His swearing in days later marked the official end of the Saleh administration, amid suggestions Saleh could seek exile in Oman or Ethiopia.
Clashes between loyalists of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Yemen Army Republican Guard and opposition forces of the Alliance of Yemeni Tribes under Sadiq al-Ahmar left one bystander dead in the capital of Sana'a and two residents dead in the region of el-Fardha Nehem. The fighting was reportedly stopped when Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi, nominally acting with the powers of the presidency under a Gulf Co-operation Council agreement inked in November 2011, personally intervened to mediate between the government and opposition. The opposition rallied in the streets and accused Saleh of attempting to sabotage the GCC peace deal ahead of elections scheduled for February. Activists reiterated their demand that Saleh face trial instead of enjoying the immunity granted by the GCC initiative. [15]
The cabinet approved a law granting immunity to President Saleh. The action forwarded the law to the legislature for its approval. [16]
Shi'a rebels in the north clashed with Salafi Islamist militants, leaving at least four Salafis dead. [17]
South Yemen separatists traded fire with soldiers at a festival commemorating the beginning of the Yemeni Civil War some 26 years earlier. Four civilians were killed and two soldiers were injured, according to witnesses and officials. At least 10 were wounded by security forces. [17]
Rada' District in central-west Yemen was allegedly captured by militants linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Some 150 inmates were reportedly set free from a prison there. Several opposition figures accused the Yemeni government of deliberately allowing Rada' to fall in a bid to demonstrate that Yemen was too unstable for a political transition to occur. [18]
Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said the presidential election scheduled for February could be delayed due to security concerns. [19]
The Assembly of Representatives of Yemen approved the immunity law. It also nominated Vice President Hadi as its candidate for the upcoming presidential election. [20] Alistair Burt, the United Kingdom's Middle East minister, lauded Hadi's nomination, saying an interim Hadi presidency would provide a credible political transition for the country heading into free and fair elections in 2014. [21]
President Saleh departed abruptly for Oman en route to the United States for medical treatment, government officials said. In a statement, Saleh asked the Yemeni people to forgive him for "any shortcomings" and vowed to return. [22] Thousands of Yemenis protested in Sana'a against the immunity law, chanting for Saleh's trial and execution over his role in the crackdown. [23] Several hundred Yemeni soldiers and airmen took over Sana'a International Airport to demand the removal of Yemeni Air Force chief Mohammad Saleh al-Ahmar, President Saleh's half-brother, sparking a confrontation with loyalist security forces. Major General Ahmed Ali al-Ashwal, the military's chief of staff, was reportedly forced to intervene. At least one protester was arrested, the Yemen Post indicated. [24]
The Air Force strike continued in Sana'a, with protesters continuing to demand General Mohammad Saleh al-Ahmar's removal. [25]
Reuters reported that Saleh sought asylum in Oman and that the Omani government was reluctant to accommodate him for fear of damaging bilateral ties with Yemen in the future if popular pressure for the president to be tried for his role in the government crackdown continued. In Yemen, the strike entered its third day, with airmen blocking main roads in Sana'a and protesters thronging outside Hadi's residence. [25]
In overnight fighting in Saada Governorate, Salafi militants allegedly attacked Houthi rebels in control of the region, leaving at least 22 dead. Protesters continuing to demand General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar be sacked claimed two Air Force officers were abducted by pro-Saleh gunmen in Hudaiydah for supporting the strike. [26]
Saleh arrived in the United States for treatment. In a statement, the U.S. government claimed it granted him a visa only for medical reasons. [27] The same day, Republican Guard units fired on protesting soldiers, including Republican Guardsmen calling for the replacement of superior officers, in Sana'a. No casualties were reported. [28]
Information Minister Ali al-Amrani escaped an apparent assassination attempt unhurt after unidentified gunmen riddled his car with bullets as he left a Cabinet meeting in Sana'a. [29]
Major protests took place across Yemen, with tens of thousands rallying to ask Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansour al-Hadi to "save the country" as Yemenis prepared for a 21 February presidential election in which Hadi would be the only candidate on the ballot. The Associated Press noted that the demonstrations marked a change in tone for the Yemeni street, which previously appeared to largely oppose the Gulf Co-operation Council's peace plan. [30] In Ta'izz, protesters marked the one-year anniversary of the uprising with the lighting of a "revolution torch" on Jamal Street, the cradle of the protests, and fireworks late into the night. [31]
Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid and the Alliance of Yemeni Tribes, said he would participate in the upcoming presidential election in order to "forget about Ali Abdullah Saleh", Yemen's outgoing president. He encouraged his followers to vote as well. [32] Military defectors marched from Change Square to near Hadi's residence to call for reform. As a concession, the government provided buses to send the defectors to Sana'a's "Officers' Club" to collect their first paychecks in months, Al Jazeera reported. [33] A carnival parade arranged by pro-election activists and an opera celebrating Yemeni unification continued festivities marking the uprising's one-year anniversary in Ta'izz. A smaller group of protesters set up a stage to denounce the impending single-candidate election of Hadi as president, calling for a boycott of the polls. [31]
South Yemen separatists reportedly set fire to a protest camp in Aden, the south's principal port city, to protest the upcoming 21 February election supported by many protesters wishing to see Saleh removed from power. [34]
A bomb went off at a polling site being set up in Aden, killing the apparent separatist purportedly trying to plant it inside a voting booth, according to a government official. The official said the Southern Movement was trying to disrupt the election. [35]
A labor strike crippled Yemen's petroleum output as workers and staff at the state oil company Petromasila shut down production at the Masila oilfield, the country's largest. Strikers complained of "corruption" at the Oil Ministry and voiced anger over the departure of the multinational corporation Canadian Nexen, which it said owed them money from its tenure as Petromasila's operator. [36]
Striking Petromasila workers agreed to return to work, according to a Dow Jones source. [37]
McClatchy Newspapers reported that many residents of Aden intended to heed the Southern Movement's call for an election boycott. At least one party leader decried the "occupation" of former South Yemen by troops loyal to Sana'a, despite Hadi being a southerner himself. [38]
The presidential election was held, with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis going to the polls to vote for Hadi, the only candidate on the ballot. Some unofficial estimates put turnout at around 80 percent. The United States and other countries issued statements congratulating the Yemeni people and voicing support for the single-candidate election. [39] Huge rallies reportedly erupted across the country as many Yemenis celebrated President Ali Abdullah Saleh's coming departure from power and the election of a new leader. However, in Yemen's south, nine people were reportedly killed when police clashed with anti-government protesters calling for a boycott, and voting was disrupted when gunmen stormed polling places, stealing and destroying a number of ballot boxes, according to local residents in Lahej Governorate. [40] Meanwhile, exports from the Masila oilfield reportedly resumed after the one-day strike of the previous week. [37]
Saleh departed from Logan International Airport in Boston en route to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. [41]
Late in the evening, Saleh arrived in Sana'a from Addis Ababa, intending to attend the inauguration of President-elect Hadi. [42]
Hadi took the constitutional oath of office as Yemen's president. In a speech, he vowed to address the problems of internal displacement and rampant poverty in Yemen. [43]
President Hadi was formally inaugurated in a ceremony in Sana'a. Saleh, the former president, accompanied Hadi and handed him a folded flag of Yemen as a symbol of the passage of power. Saleh said he would remain as head of the General People's Congress, Yemen's ruling party, and a number of activists demonstrated outside Hadi's residence calling for a restructuring of the military to remove Saleh's loyalists and relatives from positions of power. [44] The Joint Meeting Parties boycotted the ceremony, calling Hadi's election a "heresy". [45] Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Saleh and his family were preparing to go into exile in Ethiopia. [46]
Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar was a Yemeni politician who served as the first President of Yemen, from Yemeni unification on 22 May 1990 to his resignation on 25 February 2012, following the Yemeni Revolution. Previously, he had served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, from July 1978 to 22 May 1990, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi.
Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar is the eldest son of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was a commander of approximately 80,000 troops of the Republican Guard unit of the Yemeni Army. On April 14, 2015, the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Saleh to the list of Specially Designated Nationals, barring US citizens and businesses from interacting with Saleh or his assets.
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the president of Yemen from 2012 until 2022, when he stepped down and transferred executive authority to the Presidential Leadership Council, with Rashad al-Alimi as its chairman. He was the vice president to Ali Abdullah Saleh from 1994 to 2012.
The Yemeni Revolution followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the 2011 Egyptian revolution and other Arab Spring protests in the Middle East and North Africa. In its early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. The protesters' demands then escalated to calls for the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mass defections from the military, as well as from Saleh's government, effectively rendered much of the country outside of the government's control, and protesters vowed to defy its authority.
Ali Mohsen Saleh al-Ahmar, sometimes spelled Muhsin, is a Yemeni military officer who served as the vice president of Yemen from 2016 to 2022, when he was dismissed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who transferred the powers of the president and vice president to the Presidential Leadership Council. He is a general in the Yemeni Army and was the commander of the northwestern military district and the 1st Armoured Division. He played a leading role in the creation of the General People's Congress.
The Battle of Sanaa was a battle during the 2011 Yemeni uprising between forces loyal to Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition tribal forces led by Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar for control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa and, on the part of the opposition, for the purpose of the downfall of president Saleh.
The following is a timeline of the 2011 Yemeni revolution from January to 2 June 2011. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011, influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
Sheikh Sadiq bin Abdullah bin Hussein bin Nasser al-Ahmar was a Yemeni politician and the leader of the Hashid tribal federation. He succeeded his father Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar in these positions after Abdullah's death in 2007. He is best known for his role in the 2011 Yemeni uprising, in which fighters under his command attacked and seized government facilities in the Battle of Sana'a.
The Alliance of Yemeni Tribes, sometimes referred to as the Yemeni Tribes' Alliance, was an alliance of tribes in Yemen opposed to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. It was formed on 30 July 2011 amidst the civil uprising in Yemen to defend anti-government protesters. Its leader, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar of the Hashid tribal federation, stated his intention to remove Saleh and his sons from power in his capacity as head of the Alliance.
The international reactions to the Yemeni Revolution were not as pronounced as reactions to similar events during the Arab Spring, but a number of governments and organisations made statements on Yemen before and after the departure of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in February 2012.
The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from 3 June through 22 September 2011. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from 23 September through December 2011. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
Yemeni peace process refers to the proposals and negotiations to pacify the Yemeni Crisis by arranging a power transfer scheme within the country and later cease-fire attempts within the raging civil war. While initially unsuccessful, the reconciliation efforts resulted with presidential elections, held in Yemen in February 2012. The violence in Yemen, however, continued during the elections and after, culminating in Houthi seizure of power and the ensuing civil war.
The Houthi takeover in Yemen, also known as the September 21 Revolution, or 2014–15 coup d'état, was a popular revolution against Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi led by the Houthis and their supporters that pushed the Yemeni government from power. It had origins in Houthi-led protests that began the previous month, and escalated when the Houthis stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa on 21 September 2014, causing the resignation of Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa, and later the resignation of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his ministers on 22 January 2015 after Houthi forces seized the presidential palace, residence, and key military installations, and the formation of a ruling council by Houthi militants on 6 February 2015.
The following lists events that happened during 2012 in Yemen.
The following lists events that happened during 2011 in Yemen.
The Yemeni Crisis began with the 2011–2012 revolution against President Abdullah Saleh, who had led Yemen for 33 years. After Saleh left office in early 2012 as part of a mediated agreement between the Yemeni government and opposition groups, the government led by Saleh's former vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, struggled to unite the fractious political landscape of the country and fend off threats both from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and from Houthi militants that had been waging a protracted insurgency in the north for years.
The Battle of Sanaa in 2014 marked the advance of the Houthis into Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and heralded the beginning of the armed takeover of the government that unfolded over the following months. Fighting began on 9 September 2014, when pro-Houthi protesters under the command of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi marched on the cabinet office and were fired upon by security forces, leaving seven dead. The clashes escalated on 18 September, when 40 were killed in an armed confrontation between the Houthis led by military commander Mohammed Ali al-Houthi and supporters of the Sunni hardliner Islah Party when the Houthis tried to seize Yemen TV, and 19 September, with more than 60 killed in clashes between Houthi fighters and the military and police in northern Sanaa. By 21 September, the Houthis captured the government headquarters, marking the fall of Sanaa.
The aftermath of the Houthi takeover in Yemen refers to developments following the Houthis' takeover of the Yemeni capital of Sana'a and dissolution of the government, which eventually led to a civil war and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
The Battle of Aden International Airport broke out in the early morning hours of 19 March 2015, when Yemen Army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked the airport in Aden, Yemen. The airport was defended by soldiers and guards supporting Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen's internationally recognised president.