The Yemeni civil war (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اليمنية), also known as the Summer War of 1994 (Arabic: حرب صيف ١٩٩٤), was a civil war fought between the two Yemeni forces of the pro-union northern and the socialist separatist southern Yemeni states and their supporters. The war resulted in the defeat of the southern separatists and the reunification of Yemen, and the flight into exile of many leaders of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) and other separatists.
Background
In December 1989, the presidents of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen; YAR) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen; PDRY) signed a draft constitution. They agreed to a one-year timetable for unification.
Approval for the union was overwhelming in the South, but the northern Islamist party Al-Islah objected due to the new constitutional clause making Islamic law "a principal source of legislation" rather than the sole source. Eventually the YAR's parliament approved the constitution and the Republic of Yemen was declared on 22 May 1990 with Ali Abdullah Saleh becoming president and Ali Salem al-Beidh Vice President. Greater Yemen, whose land has been divided between the British and the Ottoman empires in the mid-19th century, had been united for the first time in more than 150 years.
A new ruling coalition was formed in which the General People's Congress and the Socialist Party joined the Islah Party, and a member of the Islah Party was included in the Presidential Council (conflicts within the ruling coalition began very quickly). Yemen held its first parliamentary elections on April 27, 1993, which confirmed the southerner fears. Former President of South Yemen, Ali Salem Al-Beidh's party (YSP) won only 54 of the 301 parliament seats, while former president of Northern Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh's GPC took 122 seats and a northern Islamist-tribal alliance, Al-Islah, captured 62 seats. Saleh, Beidh, and Attas retained their positions but Al-Islah's influential leader, the Sheikh Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar of the Hashid tribal confederation, became speaker of the parliament. The former 50–50 split between the GPC and YSP became an uneven three-way partnership.
Relations between Saleh and many left-wing politicians soured over the following years. The President eventually began to enlist Islamists to weaken his opponents, and allowed them to build up a presence in the country. Jihadists consequently assassinated several Southern communists.
As a new oil field was brought online in the Hadhramaut Governorate in the south, southerners began to feel that their land, home to the majority of the country's oil reserves, was illegally appropriated as part of a planned conspiracy by the rulers of North Yemen.
Finally, the newly unified nation faced political crisis when an estimated 800,000 Yemeni nationals and overseas workers were sent home by Saudi Arabia following Yemen's decision not to support Coalition forces in the Gulf War. Remittances from these workers, an important part of the economy, were slashed and many Yemenis were placed in refugee camps while the government decided where to house them and how to re-integrate them into the workforce. The repatriation of these Yemenis immediately increased the nation's population by 7%.
Vice President Ali Salem al-Beidh withdrew to Aden in August 1993 and said he would not return to the government until his grievances were addressed. These included northern violence against his Yemeni Socialist Party, as well as the economic marginalization of the south. Negotiations to end the political deadlock dragged on into 1994. The government of Prime Minister Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas, the former South Yemen Prime Minister, became ineffective due to political infighting.
An accord between northern and southern leaders was signed in Amman, Jordan on 20 February 1994, but this could not stop the crisis. The overall security situation in the country deteriorated, with accusations from southern leaders that there have been numerous killings targeting southerners and that northern leaders are working to gradually marginalize them and seize all power. During these tensions, both the northern and southern armies–which had never integrated–gathered on their respective frontiers.
Political conflict
Protests broke out in the south as a result of political conflicts and the deterioration of the security situation in the country, with the widespread violence, political terrorism and assassinations, as well as the deterioration of the political and economic situation in the country, with southerners expressing their dissatisfaction through marches, demonstrations, rallies and conferences that began on October 9, 1991 and lasted until May 12, 1992.
As a result of the crisis that arose between the two ruling parties since December 31, 1991 in connection with the elections and many other issues, such as the integration of the two armies, the failure to implement the Law on Political Parties requiring non-intervention by the military, the need to resign the Prime Minister and the ministers who had put forward their candidacies, the idea of holding a national conference was proposed, as well as a formula for dialogue on the issues and problems of Yemen in the midst of the process of democratic transformation and national unification. The main purpose of holding such a conference was to formulate a political document that all parties would adhere to, whether those that would come to power as a result of the elections or those that would leave it.
As the end of the transition period approached and preparations were made for the parliamentary elections that took place on 27 April 1993, demands from parties outside the ruling coalition for a National Conference became increasingly important. In response, a preparatory committee for the conference was formed, headed by Abdul Rahman Al-Jifri, the head of the Yemeni League of Sons party. When this committee was formed, it was taken into account that it should include representatives of various parties and major political organizations in order to ensure their contribution to the work of the conference. The committee managed to overcome many problems that prevented the convening of the conference. However, the two ruling parties indicated that both sides continued to be unwilling to hold the conference. They even supported the idea of holding a parallel conference, which was decided to be held in mid-August 1992, but disagreements postponed it until mid-September.
The National Conference finally took place and began its work on September 12, 1992, at the Cultural Center in Sana'a, in the presence of representatives of parties, political and social forces, a number of Islamic scholars and members of the House of Representatives, while the Socialist Party was absent, despite its participation in the work of the committee for three months, thus declaring its solidarity with its partner in government, the Congress, which did not participate in the preparation of the National Conference and preferred to participate in the preparation of the Conference of Parties and Mass Organizations, which was to take place simultaneously with the National Conference.
On 11 May 1993, after the elections, the two parties (the GPC and the YSP) agreed to merge into one political party that would gain an absolute majority in the elected House of Representatives. A statement they released stated that President Saleh and Vice President Al-Beidh signed an agreement to unite the two parties on 10 May 1993. Both parties stated that their merger would begin with the formation of a single bloc in parliament and the establishment of close and strong coordination between them, which would lead to the creation of a single political organization. On 23 May, President Saleh tasked Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas with forming a new government, but this stalled due to disagreements between the Socialist Party and the Islah Party. On 30 May 1993, after the disagreements were resolved, the formation of a tripartite coalition government was announced.
On October 11, 1993, the Yemeni House of Representatives elected a new presidential council for the country consisting of five members, including President Saleh, his deputy al-Beidh, Islah Party member Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, General People's Congress Party assistant secretary general Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghani, and Salem Socialist Party assistant secretary general Saleh Mohammed.
However, the Vice President of the Presidential Council, Ali Salem Al-Beidh, said he would not come to Sana'a to take the constitutional oath and would remain in his residence in Aden. Al-Beidh justified his refusal to attend the meeting, saying, “Sanaa is an arsenal of weapons, and continuing this situation means that we will remain tied up and fighting among ourselves.” He stressed that he “does not want to go to Sanaa to take the oath and lie to the people again, and said he cannot bear responsibility in light of the current conditions, which have not allowed and will not allow him to do anything since the first day of unity.” On October 29, Al-Bayd warned that Yemen’s unity “is at risk unless we establish its state and give it national and democratic content.” Al-Baydh blamed "those in whose hands the apparatus of power is obstructing the adoption of measures" and added that he would have taken the constitutional oath "if he had seen the opportunity to set a timetable (for the 18 points he put forward) for practical measures."
On the same day, Al-Beidh's sons (Naif, 24, and Nayouf, 22) and their cousin (Kamel Abdel Hamid, 23) were shot in the Mansoura District in Aden. Kamel was immediately dead, with more than thirty bullets in his head and the body. A source in the Socialist Party confirmed that there were "political motives" behind the attack, which he considered "a message addressed to Al-Beidh, due to the firmness of his position" in the dispute with President Saleh over the political and economic reform program.
On November 10-11, Saleh informed his deputy Al-Beidh that all points of disagreement were open to discussion, provided that unity was not lost. Yemen's Saba news agency reported that the president ordered the removal of checkpoints set up by the army, and the Yemeni parliament asked Saleh to prevent the military from moving from one place to another "to calm the situation."
Escalation and military activity
Yemen witnessed military movements: the Southern Forces, stationed near the city of Amran, moved to the south of the country, while thousands of Northern Forces soldiers were stationed in Taiz, Ibb and on the Aden-Sana'a road, and military reinforcements were sent from both sides to Qa'atabah, which was the crossing point between the northern and southern parts of the country. On 17 November 1993, Southern military units moved from the south towards the north, arriving from Salah al-Din Camp and Al-Anada Air Base to reinforce Southern units in the "fringe" areas, i.e. the dividing line between the two halves of the reunified country, in part taking up defensive positions in the hills surrounding the port of Aden, in anticipation of a possible attack by Northern forces. On 10 December, the Socialist Party accused the GPC of placing the former Northern forces on high alert and re-establishing border security between the two halves, and denied a report that its own leaders had ordered the Southern forces to prepare. This came a day after the Socialist Party welcomed Yemeni President Saleh's adoption of his reform programme.
By January of 1994, efforts of the Military Committee, formed to integrate and unite the two armies, had failed to reach an agreement under the pressure of conditions set by the southerners (for example, they demand for the disbandment of the Republican Guard, loyal to President Saleh, numbering tens of thousands of soldiers and equipped with the best weapons). Meanwhile, popular demonstrations were held in the main Yemeni cities of Sana'a, Taiz and Hadramaut to protest the rise in prices following a 12% fall in the national currency in a week. Due to the tense situation, most shops in the main cities were closed.