Bahraini regime forces attack peaceful protesters denouncing Saudi aggression on Yemen / Pics

[Sally]

If people are protesting quietly, the police should just stand by and wait until they are protesting. Look what happened in Syria when people were protesting quietly.


Bahraini regime forces attack peaceful protesters denouncing Saudi aggression on Yemen / Pics
March 27, 2016 - 9:04 AM

• News Code : 743415
• Source : Miraat Bahrain

Bahraini security forces, using shotgun pellets and tear gas, cracked down on protestors, who took to the streets of Sitra, south east of the Bahraini capital Manama, to condemn the war led by Saudi Arabia on Yemen.


AhlulBayt News Agency - Bahraini security forces, using shotgun pellets and tear gas, cracked down on protestors, who took to the streets of Sitra, south east of the Bahraini capital Manama, to condemn the war led by Saudi Arabia on Yemen.

Demonstrators held posters that read slogans denouncing the Saudi war, which marks its second year, demanding to put an end to the aggression that has left thousands of Yemenis killed.

Protestors also voiced their disappointment at the international silence towards "the crimes committed by the Saudi regime against innocent children and civilians."

Picture can be seen at:

Bahraini regime forces attack peaceful protesters denouncing Saudi aggression on Yemen / Pics?

 

[waltky]

Yemenis flee to Somaliland to escape war...

Yemenis Escaping Conflict Flee to Somaliland
April 13, 2016 — In an unusual development, people from war-torn Yemen are fleeing to a region whose own citizens have been scattered over the world by decades of conflict. In the past year, nearly half of the 176,000 people who have fled Yemen’s conflict have gone to the Horn of Africa, according to the UN refugee agency. Many are Africans returning to their countries of origin, but about 26,000 are Yemenis with nowhere else to turn.

Wasiim Said Mohamed arrived in Somaliland in February with his wife and two sons. They fled Yemen after Houthi militants attacked their home in Aden. Luckily, the family was not home, but Mohamed decided to move to Somaliland, which he knew was not under siege, and one of the few places that would accept Yemeni passports. “This is the only country where the cost of living is cheap and there is good security and I can live with the people,” Mohamed said. And he is one of the lucky ones with a job. Mohamed works at a bakery owned by his uncle’s Syrian friend, Abdulrahman Darwish. Darwish had been living in Yemen since the 1980s, when he fled Syria due to violence during the time when Bashar al-Assad’s father was president.

Darwish was working as a teacher in Yemen, but brought his family to Hargeisa last year to escape the conflict. And now he’s trying to make a living from his bakery. “The situation here is very good, but I’m lacking some materials and support,” said Darwish. “I want to leave and go to another country but it’s very difficult. I cannot take that risk at sea with my wife and two daughters. If I can get some legal way to Europe or elsewhere, I’ll be willing to do that.”

Safe, but stuck

Options for Yemeni refugees are limited. Most don’t have the money to pay smugglers or attempt the long, dangerous route to Europe, which involves crossing the Gulf of Aden, then going by land through Egypt to access the Mediterranean. And even then, many can’t get visas in Europe or even Turkey. Somaliland may be safe and welcoming but it is poor. Unemployment is high. The UNCHR says that of the 10,000 people who have arrived here from Yemen, about 1,900 are Yemeni nationals. There is no refugee camp in Somaliland. The government says it is open to the idea, but the UN says refugee camps are not cost effective and there are constant challenges with security. Additionally, the UN says the numbers don’t justify it at this time, since the number of arrivals has significantly decreased since July of 2015. Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 after a three-year war, so many of the people here know the refugee experience first-hand, when they were living in countries like Yemen and Ethiopia. Still, resources are limited, says Somaliland’s Resettlement Minister Ali Saed Raygal. “The refugees are in the same situation as Somalilanders because the Somalilanders also don’t have enough jobs,” said Raygal. “So anyone who had skills, working in Yemen, he can do the same here. But we are trying to help them.”

A Yemeni refugee browses the book selections at the Peaceful Coexistence Center, in Hargeisa, Somaliland​

Upon arrival, refugees are given food, medical care and cash - about $100 per person - from the U.N. They can also get transport within Somalia if they wish. But it’s not enough for some, like Jihan Ali Abdullah, a recent Yemeni arrival to Hargeisa by way of the United Arab Emirates. Thirty years old now, Abdullah says she moved to the UAE from Yemen when she was two. One day, she says her employer in the UAE was unable to renew her work visa and she was given only days to leave the country. Somaliland or Yemen were her only options, according to Abdullah. She lives with her father’s friend in Hargeisa, who is helping her for now, but she says she has no way to earn a living. “I want to go to a civilized country, I want to live,” said Abdullah. “I want to be stable financially. I want to go back to school, do something, make a life. Here is not life.” But until Abdullah and the other Yemeni refugees can find that better life, they must make the best of things here in Somaliland.

Yemenis Escaping Conflict Flee to Somaliland

 

[waltky]

Yemen peace talks break down...

Yemen govt temporarily suspends talks with rebels
Monday 2nd May, 2016 - Yemen's government temporarily suspended Sunday its participation in talks with Iran-backed rebels in protest at their takeover of a military base and continued ceasefire violations, officials said.

Yemen's government temporarily suspended on Sunday (May 1) its participation in talks with Iran-backed rebels in protest at their takeover of a military base and continued ceasefire violations, officials said. "The delegation of the republic of Yemen has suspended its participation in Kuwait talks because of the continued violations by rebels and their takeover of Al-Amaliqa base," foreign minister and head of delegation Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said on Twitter. He said the suspension will last "until guarantees for compliance were provided", without providing details.

A spokesman for Mikhlafi told AFP that the government delegation has suspended its participation in both "direct and indirect" talks taking place in Kuwait. "The suspension will continue until guarantees are provided that the rebels will stop their ceasefire violations and withdraw from the base," Mane al-Matari told AFP. A statement by the government delegation called on the UN envoy, Kuwait and other Gulf states and countries backing the peace process "to apply pressure on the other side to comply with peace requirements." The United Nations said it was informed by the government delegation that it will not attend a round of talks scheduled for later on Sunday.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he made contacts with members of both delegations and that he had received assurances that they would continue to try to resolve their differences but without face-to-face meetings. Huthi rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam however criticised the Yemeni government's decision. "Those who don't want peace ... are the ones who create false justifications and reasons to obstruct," the talks, Abdulsalam wrote on Twitter. On Saturday, Yemen's warring parties held their first face-to-face talks since the negotiations in Kuwait began on Apr 21. The UN envoy said these direct talks were "productive" and had touched on key issues.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Yemen warring sides 'to swap prisoners'...

Yemen conflict: Warring parties 'agree prisoner swap'
Tue, 10 May 2016 - The warring parties in Yemen are reported to have agreed at peace talks in Kuwait to carry out a major prisoner swap.

The warring parties in Yemen are reported to have agreed to carry out a major prisoner swap within 20 days. The deal between the government and the Houthi rebel movement is being seen as a breakthrough in weeks of peace talks that have achieved little until now. Sources from both sides at the talks in Kuwait told the AFP news agency that they would each hand over half of the prisoners they were holding. The rebel source said that hundreds of detainees would be involved.

More than 6,200 people have been killed and 2.5 million others displaced since the conflict escalated in March 2015, when a Saudi-led multinational coalition launched a military campaign to defeat the rebels and allied security forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and drive them from the capital, Sanaa. The fighting has also pushed the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of famine and left 82% of the population in need of humanitarian assistance.

Yemenis in Sanaa hold pictures of prisoners held by pro-government and Saudi-led coalition forces​

A ceasefire has been in place since last month to give the peace talks a chance, but both sides have regularly accused each other of violations. The prisoner swap deal was reportedly agreed during a meeting in Kuwait of the joint working group on prisoners and detainees formed by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. "It was agreed during the meeting to release 50% of the prisoners and detainees within the next 20 days," Mane al-Matari, media adviser to Yemen's foreign minister, told AFP. The working group would meet again on Wednesday to finalise the mechanism on how and when the exchange would take place, he added.

Mr Matari estimated the number of prisoners in the thousands, but the rebel source said there might be only hundreds of prisoners involved, AFP reported. The UN envoy praised the delegations' co-operation on Monday evening, after the face-to-face talks resumed following a two-day interruption. "We are at a true crossroads. We are either moving towards peace or going back to square one," Mr Ahmed wrote on Twitter. "What I heard from both delegations is promising, but we shouldn't forget that the challenges are enormous and the gap between them is large."

Yemen conflict: Warring parties 'agree prisoner swap' - BBC News

See also:

Pentagon Says U.S. Forces in Yemen for 'Short Term' But With No End Date
May 9, 2016 – The presence of a small number of U.S. troops in Yemen has no announced end date but would be “short term,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Monday, three days after Americans learned of a military deployment targeting Islamic terrorists in yet another Arab country.

Cook said the “small contingent” of troops, acting in a “liaison role” with a Saudi-led Sunni coalition, would be in Yemen for “a limited period of time.” “But I don’t have a particular deadline [for their withdrawal] to share with you at this time,” he added. Asked about the issue of congressional authorization – the War Powers Act requires Congress to authorize the use of force beyond 60 days – Cook replied, “This was going to be a short-duration operation, a short-duration support, so obviously we will comply with whatever rules and – uh, are required for the operation in Yemen.” On Friday, the Pentagon said a small team of U.S. troops has been in Yemen for the last two weeks, helping the Sunni coalition targeting al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (AQAP). The al-Qaeda affiliate has exploited the country’s core conflict – between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Shi’ite Houthi rebels supported by Iran – to expand its presence, especially along the southern coast.

In April last year AQAP seized the country’s third-largest port, Mukalla, making it the de facto capital of its purported “emirate” and reportedly using port revenues and cash looted from banks as lucrative sources of funding. With U.N.-backed Yemen peace talks underway, in a temporary shift of focus away from the Houthi threat coalition troops helped forces loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to recapture Mukalla late last month. The coalition claimed that 800 AQAP fighters were killed as the militants retreated. Cook said Monday the U.S. troops were “operating in liaison with coalition activities in Mukalla, and they are still in country, still providing that liaison role, in particular in support of intelligence-sharing. And they continue to perform that role.” U.S. military personnel withdrew from Yemen in March 2015 and the U.S. Embassy was evacuated, after the Houthis’ bid to seize control of the country forced the U.S.-supported Hadi to flee the country.

Shortly after that U.S. pullout, the Saudi-led coalition launched a campaign of airstrikes against the Shi’ite rebels in which more than 6,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed according to U.N. figures. Up to now, declared U.S. participation in the coalition effort has been limited to intelligence and logistical support. The U.S. has also continued to carry out airstrikes of its own targeting AQAP – four since April 23 that killed at least 10 terrorists, according to the Pentagon. (Data compiled by the New America Foundation records 10 U.S. drone strikes in Yemen this year.) Asked about the decision to put U.S. boots on the ground in this instance, Cook said the clear target was AQAP. “AQAP remains a significant security threat to the United States and to our regional partners. And we welcome this effort to specifically remove AQAP from this part of Yemen, and our support is particularly designed to support that.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Paris on Monday, met with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir and expressed U.S. appreciation for Saudi’s key role in fighting AQAP in Yemen, said State Department spokesman John Kirby. “Saudi leadership in making available an operations center and contributing the largest number of forces has been indispensable to recent successes, including most recently in al Mukalla,” Kirby said in a brief statement that did not mention a U.S. troop presence there. Western security officials generally view AQAP as al-Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate. It has tried unsuccessfully to attack the U.S., by attempting to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009, and by shipping bombs to the U.S. hidden in packages on commercial cargo planes the following year. In January last year AQAP claimed responsibility after gunmen shot dead 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and a terrorist killed four Jews during a siege at the kosher supermarket in the city.

Pentagon Says U.S. Forces in Yemen for 'Short Term' But With No End Date