Yemen
Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational IssuesCountry name - conventional long form : Republic of Yemen
Country name - conventional short form : Yemen
Country name - local long form : Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
Country name - local short form : Al Yaman
Country name - former : Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]
Government type : republic
Capital - name : Sanaa
Capital - time difference : UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
National holiday : Unification Day, 22 May (1990)
Population : 23,013,376 (July 2008 est.)
Nationality - noun : Yemeni(s)
Nationality - adjective : Yemeni
Languages : Arabic
Currency (code) : Yemeni rial (YER)
Currency code : YER
Major infectious diseases - degree of risk : high
Yemen is located Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia. The climate is mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east. The terrain is narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula.
Background
This entry usually highlights major historic events and current issues and may include a statement about one or two key future trends.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.
More Information about the country
