Overview

Background

Historically, Yemen was created out of two countries following a rash of political disputes that culminated in a civil war. North and South Yemen, two of the poorest countries in the oil-blessed Middle East, were unified into a single country in May 1990 as the Republic of Yemen, but remained separate politically and militarily. In April 1993, however, the Yemenis voted in their first multiparty elections, formally sealing the 1990 merger between the two neighbors....