Highlights
Under Pressure: Social violence over land and water in Yemen
Yemen Armed Violence Assessment Issue Brief No. 2
October 2010
Armed conflict over scarce natural resources is the leading cause of violent death in Yemen.
Recent terrorist incidents in the country, including the 6 October attack on a British diplomatic vehicle in the capital Sana’a, have seen an increasing focus on the poorest country in the Middle East. This report from the Yemen Armed Violence Assessment (YAVA) discusses the chronic problem of social violence over scarce land and water resources in Yemen, which results in thousands of deaths and injuries each year and severely damages social and economic development.
The 12-page Issue Brief provides an overview of the drivers, dynamics and impacts of land- and water-related social violence, highlighting likely future trends. There is evidence that armed social violence is in increasingly common, associated with the proliferation of weapons. The report considers government initiatives to contain civilian gun use, and highlights the many linkages between social violence and other systemic challenges confronting Yemeni society.
Among the report’s findings:
- Violence accompanying land and water disputes results in the deaths of some 4,000 people each year: this is probably more than the secessionist violence in the south, the armed rebellion in the north, and Yemeni al-Qaeda terrorism combined.
- In the context of political turmoil and other grievances, land and water disputes have triggered collective violence, threatening to spark wider civil unrest.
- Rapid population growth and extensive governance challenges are exacerbating resource-related conflicts.
- Since 2007 the Government of Yemen has actively enforced restrictions on gun commerce and especially gun carrying in urban areas; nevertheless, gun ownership is unregulated and gun carrying is unrestricted outside urban areas.
- Despite government measures to reduce civilian gun use, reports indicate that leakage from the Yemeni army is an important source of ongoing supplies of military-style small arms and ammunition to civilian gun markets.
- Download Under pressure: Social violence over land and water in Yemen
- More information on the Yemen Armed Violence Assessment
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