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Context

• Saudi-led coalition launches operation against Yemen's Houthis to stop attacks on its oil facilities and protect global energy sources. The coalition said it was carrying out air strikes in Yemen's Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

Details

About

• Yemen is a country in Western Asia, on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.

 

Borders

• It borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast.
• Yemen shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia.
• It is also bordered by Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel to the south.

Capital

• Yemen's constitutionally stated capital, and largest city, is the city of Sanaa.

Islands

• A number of Red Sea islands, including the Hanish Islands, Kamaran, and Perim, as well as Socotra in the Arabian Sea, belong to Yemen.
• The largest of these is Socotra. Jabal al-Tair is a volcanic Island. Socotra faces the Guardafui Channel and the Somali Sea.

 

Important cities

• Abyan, Sanaa, Sayhut, Say’un, Hajjah, Shibam, Ta’izz, Zabid, Mocha, Al Anad, Al Mukalla, Nishtun, Sa’dah, As Salif, Aden, Al Ghayda, Habarut, Marib, Al Hudaydah.

Geographic divisions

• Yemen can be divided geographically into four main regions:

1. the coastal plains in the west,
2. the western highlands,
3. the eastern highlands, and
4. the Rub' al Khali in the east.

• The Tihāmah ("hot lands" or "hot earth") form a very arid and flat coastal plain along Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline.

 

Highest point

• The highest point in Yemen and Arabia is Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb, at about 3,666 m.

 

Rub al Khali desert

• Yemen's portion of the Rub al Khali desert receives almost no rain.
• It is populated only by Bedouin herders of camels.

 

The Rub' al Khali is the sand desert encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert includes parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert.

 

Oilfields

• Yemen's oil reserves are largely concentrated in the inland Masila Basin in the center of the country, and the Marib and Shabwa basins further west.

Houthis

• The Houthis are a large clan originating from Yemen’s northwestern Saada province.
• They practice the Zaydi form of Shiism. Zaydis make up around 35 percent of Yemen’s population.
• Houthi insurgents have clashed with Yemen’s government for more than a decade.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-led-coalition-asks-civilians-avoid-oil-sites-yemens-hodeidah-state-media-2022-03-26/