Yemen

Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in southern Arabia in West Asia encompassing the Socotra Archipelago, bordered by Saudi Arabia and Oman with maritime boundaries toward Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia, the second-largest country on the Arabian Peninsula by both area and population, with Sanaa as its capital and roughly 34.7 million people, predominantly Arab Muslims. Yemen has stood at the crossroads of civilizations for more than 7,000 years, home to the Sabaean kingdom and later the Himyarite Kingdom, and it became a center of Islamic learning after Islam spread rapidly in the seventh century, later renowned for coffee exported through the port of Mocha. Following the First World War the Kingdom of Yemen was established; in 1962 it became the Yemen Arab Republic in the north, while South Yemen gained independence in 1967, and the two states unified in 1990 to form the modern Republic of Yemen under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who governed until 2012. Since 2011 Yemen has endured severe political turmoil that escalated into civil war by 2015, and the country now ranks among the world's least developed nations, facing an acute humanitarian crisis affecting millions.