SUMMARY
In the 19th century, the southern part of Yemen became a British colony whereas the northern part of the country came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the end of the First World War North Yemen gained independence, while South Yemen remained under British administration until 1967.
Rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh: 1978-2011
The history of independent North Yemen was marked by several violent power struggles. In 1978, following a tumultuous period when two consecutive North Yemeni presidents were assassinated, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had risen quickly in rank within the military, was appointed president, at the age of 36. Saleh successfully consolidated power, and built up a broad patronage networks among Yemen's many powerful tribes, allowing him to rule as an authoritarian for over 30 years. Despite being viewed by his Saudi and US backers as a guarantor of stability in Yemen, the 33 year dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh that began in 1978 was filled with conflicts. The authoritarian president himself described ruling Yemen as “dancing on the heads of snakes”, in reference to the many uprisings, civil wars and tribal feuds he had to navigate to stay at the helm of the nation. He largely succeeded in this by playing of various factions against each other, and by building close ties with many highland tribes through an extensive patronage network. His most important ally in this was Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar, sometimes called the sheikh of sheikhs for his influential role in mediating Saleh's relationship with the tribes of Yemen. Al-Ahmar was up until his death in 2007 the sheikh of the powerful Hashid tribal confederation, Saleh's own tribe, and the leader of the Islah party.
In the years that followed Saleh's appointment, the North Yemeni government engaged in an armed conflict over government with the leftist NDF (National Democratic Front), a movement that largely operated out of, and was supported by, the socialist regime of South Yemen.
The relations between North and South Yemen deteriorated in the 1970s and a short border conflict erupted in late February 1979. A peace agreement was signed a month later, following substantial mediation efforts by, among others, the Arab League. The agreement stipulated a unification of the countries. However, it was not until 1988 that this process gained real momentum.
The unification process was peacefully completed on 22 May 1990 when the Arab Republic of Yemen (North Yemen) merged with the Peoples Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and the Republic of Yemen was formed. The parliaments of North and South Yemen elected Saleh as President, and Ali Salim al-Beidh, former leader of South Yemen, as Vice-President. The former capital of North Yemen, Sanaa, was named capital of the Republic of Yemen.
Although the unification in itself was peaceful, the resentment of the unification was strong in the southern parts of Yemen. In 1994, this escalated into a war when southern Yemen proclaimed itself an independent state, once again under the leadership of Ali Salim al-Beidh. However, after two months of fighting, the northern Yemeni army had taken control of the southern parts and the leaders of the new state fled the country, effectively ending the conflict. The 1994 breakaway attempt was defeated in part by Saleh utilising the divisions in the south, letting a brigade made up of southerners that had been exiled following their defeat in a 1986 South Yemen civil war lead the offensive. Leading this faction was Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who soon appointed vice-president under Saleh and became president of Yemen in 2012 after Saleh was deposed.
The strained relations between the northern and the southern parts of Yemen did however not come to an end, and towards the end of the 2000s, a loosely organised group calling themselves the Sothern Movement began calling for cessation. Ali Salim al-Beidh was from exile one of the major leaders of the movement. Government troops and members of the group have clashed on several occasions during the latter’s demonstrations in southern Yemen, and parts of the movement would in 2017 consolidate into the STC (Southern Transitional Council).
The first national president election, held in 1999, as well as the second election in 2006, was won by Saleh, despite protests from the opposition alleging fraud.
In 2004, violence escalated in the northern Yemeni governorate of Saada, where a Zaydi revivalist movement called Ansarallah (commonly referred to as the Houthis) fought with government forces in several rounds of armed conflict. In 2008, it declared its intent to overthrow Saleh, marking its first stated incompatibility that activated the conflict over government in Yemen. Since 2009, the government of Yemen has also been engaged in an armed conflict over government with AQAP (al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula).
Arab Spring and the rise of Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi: 2011-2014
In early January 2011, the ruling party announced that it would seek to remove the limit on the number of terms in office for the president. This triggered widespread resistance as many Yemenis feared that Saleh would retain office for life.
Widespread protests erupted, greatly inspired by the events of the so-called Arab Spring. The violent response by the government triggered mass defections among the regime's supports in the military and among the tribes, and also caused parts of the opposition to take up arms, sparking a civil war. Government forces fought dissident military units in the Free Yemeni Army, and armed opposition members of Islah and the Alliance of Yemeni Tribes during the year, in addition to the already ongoing conflicts with Ansarallah and AQAP. President Saleh was eventually forced to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brokered deal on 23 November 2011. By signing, he promised, in return for an amnesty, to relinquish all presidential powers by February 2012, when Vice-President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi would be elected interim President for a two-year period. As planned, this change in power indeed became effective on 21 February 2012. During this period of instability, as security forces turned on each other and loyalist forces concentrated on the capital to protect the regime, the governments effective control of the country diminished as the various armed groups, most notably Ansarallah and AQAP, greatly expanded their territorial control.
The Hadi regime, lacking its own powerbase but propped up by several of the armed factions that had participated in the overthrow of Saleh, struggled to reassert central authority. While it had some success in recapturing territory from AQAP, it was too weak to challenge Ansarallah's hold of the north, as well as being unable to meaningfully assert control over the myriad of militias that ostensibly supported it.
Between 2013 and late January 2014, the National Dialogue Conference (in which Ansarallah and all major political factions, except for AQAP, participated in) worked on a negotiated solution to Yemen's political crisis. In late January 2014, the conference presented plans to divide the country into six federal states and to extend Hadi’s term as president for another year without elections. Soon before concluding this, Ansarallah withdrew from the conference in protest, and soon thereafter demanded the government's resignation.
During the early spring of 2014, Ansarallah advanced south from the Sadah governorate to Amran governorate and also towards the capital Sanaa. The group seized control of Amran town and the governorate with the same name in July. Resistance from government and tribal forces was subdued, which is often credited to the alliance between the former president Saleh and his network, centered on the General People's Congress (GPC) party, and Ansarallah. Saleh allied with his former enemies in Ansarallah against his own former vice-president and successor to the presidency, Hadi, in an apparent bid to re-secure his influence in Yemen.
In mid-August, Ansarallah intensified its calls for the government to step down and arranged sit-ins and later on also demonstrations in the capital. On 21 September, Ansarallah took control of most of the capital. As the group advanced, many units of the security forces and governmental agencies capitulated, including the Interior Ministry which ordered its personnel to cooperate with Ansarallah.
The takeover of most of the capital resulted in a peace agreement, known as the “Peace and National Partnership Agreement”. The agreement was facilitated by the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, and stipulated that President Hadi should dissolve the government, subsequently pushing the Islah party out of power. The deal meant that Ansarallah got broad powers in the new government that was appointed. Furthermore, the agreement included a ceasefire, removal of the protest camps in the capital and its surroundings, and a lowering of fuel prices.
The new government was formed in November with compromise candidate Khalid Bahah as prime minister. Despite the fulfillment of Ansarallah’s demands, the group kept its troops in the capital and exerted heavy influence on government policies. The group unilaterally appointed regional governors and halted the appointment of a new army chief of staff.
Houthi regime in Sanaa, and a rival government in Aden: 2015-
In January 2015, a political crisis erupted as Ansarallah attacked the office of the prime minister in protest of a new draft constitution, which would have federalize Yemen on terms that the group opposed. The next day, on 20 January, the presidential palace was stormed. Hadi was put under house arrest and resigned on 22 January. The peace agreement from September 2014 thereby collapsed as Ansarallah ousted the government and took control of the capital. According to UCDP definitions, Ansarallah was then seen as the Government of Yemen.
One month later, on 21 February, the former president made claims of government power, and set up a rival government i Aden. The conflict over government between Ansarallah-controlled Government of Yemen and Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council (formerly Forces of Hadi), widely acknowledged as the internationally recognized government, soon escalated into war. A Saudi-led coalition on 26 March 2015 launched airstrikes against the Government of Yemen, in support of Forces of Hadi. Fighting would continue at a high intensity until a ceasefire was agreed to in 2022. This slowed down the fighting, but didn't stop it. The Government of Yemen has been active in one-sided violence every year between 2020-2025, except for 2023, often in targeted attacks on civilian members of tribes that have resisted Ansarallah's rule. The Forces of Hadi was renamed the Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council in 2022, as Hadi resigned as president in favor of an eight-man council sharing the presidents authority. The eight men were largely drawn from the major military factions that constituted the deeply fractured Forces of Hadi.
In November 2017, former president Saleh and his GPC party staged a coup attempt against Ansarallah’s rule in Sanaa. The former president had been a close ally and member of the Ansarallah government’s security forces since 2014. The revolt was short-lived, however, as Saleh was killed in the fighting in the capital on 4 December, and most of his loyalist forces thereafter either fled or surrendered.
The Ansarallah government supported Hamas as a secondary warring party in the conflict over Palestine against Israel in 2022. In connection to this, they fired missiles at commercial shipping passing through the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb straits, which they claimed were sovereign Yemeni territory. An international coalition led by the United States and United Kingdom opposed the claim, and launched airstrikes on Yemen 2022-2025. In 2025, Israel also launched a campaign of airstrikes after declaring its intention to dismantle the Ansarallah leadership of Yemen, culminating in the killing of significant parts of the Ansarallah government, including its prime minister.
In late 2025, the southern separatist STC, the most powerful faction in the Presidential Leadership Council, attempted a coup that temporarily put them in control of all territories of South Yemen, after which they declared their independence as the State of South Arabia in January 2026. A strong Saudi Arabian military response, in conjuncture with political backroom dealings that splintered off STC support, led to the rapid disintegration of its territorial control, and the restoration of authority by a now strengthened and more unified Presidential Leadership Council. The Yemeni government also clashed with STC during its splintering from the PLC, resulting in the reignition of the South Yemen conflict.
The government of Yemen has been an active perpetrator of one-sided violence against civilians every year since 2020, with the exception of 2023.
The government of Yemen has been involved in the intrastate, interstate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
