Every Day Is Special: July 7 - Unity Day in Yemen

July 7 - Unity Day in Yemen

Posted on July 7, 2019

The words are awful: civil war. That means that a nation is tearing itself apart, two or more factions of the people fighting one another, spilling blood, grasping for control, power - or maybe striving to right a grievous wrong.

In the case of Yemen's 1994 Civil War, there were tensions over religious differences (Shia and Sunni), and there was disagreement about how important Islamic law should be in the nation's laws. There was anger about unfair economic conditions and marginalization of people in the south by people in the north. Even though Yemen is a relatively small nation (between California and Texas in area), many people wanted to go back to an earlier arrangement, when there was South Yemen and North Yemen.

(Here is some background, explained largely via maps.)

Most of the fighting happened in the south, and the results were:

* From 7,000 to 10,000 people dead.

* Socialists and separatists (people who wanted Yemen to be split into North Yemen and South Yemen) either executed or exiled.

* "Unity" on this date in 1994 under a leader from the north...except none of the underlying causes were solved, so in 2011 a Yemeni crisis began, and in 2015 another civil war broke out.

So "Unity Day" has a nice sound to it - but Yemen is very definitely not all that unity-minded!