Ismailis are the second biggest Shia community worldwide after the Twelver Shia, but while in Yemen they are outnumbered by both Sunnis and Zaidi Shia they have deep historical roots in the country going back over 1,000 years. Living mainly in the northern Haraz mountains and Aden in the south, Yemen’s Ismaili minority hails from the Tayyibi Mustaʿli branch of…

In conflict zones, peacebuilding processes are often driven by the binary framing of victim and perpetrator. Peacebuilding within such a narrative is mainly about securing truces like those being strung together in Yemen today, ending an ongoing militarized war or signing a peace agreement. In the context of Yemen, there is also a tendency by the international community to localize and reduce the conflict, emphasizing it solely as a civil war while disregarding the roles of many countries involved that…

For decades prior to the ongoing conflict, Yemen had been vulnerable to recurring budget deficits due to a lack of meaningful fiscal reform, high recurrent expenditures – mainly public sector salaries and fuel subsidies – and an overdependence on oil revenues. While foreign debt obligations remained low, the debt market was poorly diversified, with treasury bill holders narrowly concentrated within…

The term Muwalladeen (m. sing. Muwallad; f. sing. Muwallada) refers to Yemenis whose families have historical links outside of Yemen, and who are in some cases of mixed origins (with a Yemeni father or grandfather and a non-Yemeni mother or grandmother). The term is often used in a derogatory way, and Muwalladeen have been the target of discriminatory practices for…

In the early 20th century Djibouti was a French colony, separated from Yemen by the 32-kilometer Bab al-Mandeb Strait. When the colony needed labor for economic development and the construction of a new port in Djibouti city, they called on Yemeni builders, farmers and sailors. Most workers came from the Tihama region on Yemen’s Red Sea Coast, while the majority…

Ten years have passed since the transfer of power from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after 33 years, to his vice president, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who remained silently in the shadows for 18 years as Saleh’s vice president. Politically weak in his own right, tasked only with following protocol and far less charismatic than Saleh, Hadi’s rise and endurance…

This paper examines the existing regulations surrounding the use of e-money in Yemen, its attempts to adopt e-money services both before and during the conflict, the major players and state of infrastructure in the sector, and the challenges and prospects facing greater adoption of electronic currency in the country.    

The humanitarian consequences of the war in Yemen are  devastating, and reach far beyond the country’s borders. Ever since Saudi Arabia launched its military campaign against the Houthi movement in northern Yemen in March 2015, nearly 4 million people have been internally displaced.[1] An additional 600,000 Yemenis have fled abroad, primarily to Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Malaysia and Jordan.

This three-part report by the Sana’a Center examines the multi-faceted relationship between tribes and the state in Yemen. It shows that this relationship has long been a complex one, with the relative power of each waxing and waning. However recently – starting before the current conflict began – a protracted period of co-option of tribal leaders into the state apparatus has led to both a strengthening of the wealth and influence of some individual sheikhs, and to a weakening of…