Country:

Country:

Republic of Yemen

Capital City:

Although Yemen's constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sana'a, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemen's capital has been temporarily relocated to the port city of Aden, on the southern coast.

Population: 24.41 million

Governance:

Yemen is a developing country. Under past rulers, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy. (While literally it means a society based on theft, it is more commonly used derogatorily to point out a corrupt government or ruling class.)

According to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed.

Politics:

Yemen has been in a state of political crisis since 2011. In January 2011, a series of street protests began against poverty, unemployment, corruption and president Ali Abdullah Saleh's plan to amend Yemen's constitution and eliminate presidential term limit, in effect making him president for life.

President Saleh eventually stepped down, the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was formally elected president on 21 February 2012 in a one-man election.

Uprising:

However, the transitional process was disrupted by conflicts between the Houthis and Islah, as well as the al-Qaeda insurgency. In September 2014, the Houthis took over Sana'a, forcing Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar to flee the country, and prompted the formation of a new "unity government" including a variety of Yemeni factions.

A draft constitution was discussed that would split Yemen into six federal regions, but the Houthis rejected the proposal. Hadi, his prime minister and cabinet resigned on 22 January 2015 amid a political impasse against the Houthis and ongoing violence in the capital. Three weeks later, the Houthis declared themselves in control of the government in what Abdul-Malik al-Houthi called a "glorious revolution", although opposition politicians, neighbouring states, and the United Nations decried the takeover as a coup d'tat. Most of Yemen's political factions and the international community have refused to recognise the Houthis' authority, and UN-brokered talks on a power-sharing deal are ongoing.

However, on 21 February, Hadi rescinded his resignation and declared he was still the legitimate president in Aden. Hadi called on government institutions to gather in Aden, which he proclaimed on 21 March 2015 was Yemen's "economic and temporary capital" while Sana'a remains under Houthi control.

Who are the Houthis?

Powerful tribesmen who subscribe to a branch of Shia Islam known as Zaidism.

But the Zaidis are no small sect - they make up one third of the population of Yemen and ruled and north of the country for 1,000 years until the early 1960s.

Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, the head of the rebel movement and its Saada province heartland, led an uprising in 2004 and has long sought to protect his clan from what some Shias see as an encroachment by Sunni groups.

It was the rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the perception by Al-Houthi that the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was not doing enough to prevent its violent, sectarian views about Zaidi Shias that prompted the Houthis to advance from the north and take Sana'a in 2014. They placed Hadi under arrest and quickly consolidated their rule.

But it was also long-held feelings that the government in Sana'a was not sharing the country's resources evenly since the overthrow of Ali Abdullah Saleh, a Zaidi, in 2011.

The Houthis hate Hadi whose head they recently put a $100,000 bounty on and kept him under house arrest after taking Sana'a in January until he fled in February. Now Hadi is believed to have left Yemen by boat."Their beef [was] about having a say in government, representation and some kind of division of the national resources and the economy that Yemen had, oil production for example. The Houthis had been saying it wanted part of that for a long time. The Zaidis have felt for a long time that they were disaffected and ignored," said Robert McFadden, senior vice president at the Soufan Group.

Iranian involvement

The degree to which the Houthis are being funded by Iran is unclear, although most Yemen watchers believe Tehran is funnelling both weapons and military advice to the rebels. Just like its backing of Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, the Houthis make an excellent proxy on the border of Iran's most significant ideological and geopolitical enemy, Saudi Arabia.

Civil War

But analysts equally see the hand of Saleh (Past prime minister) behind the Houthi advance, which may also serve to explain why the Houthis have been willing to spread so far from their north-western heartlands.

In the past, Al-Houthi has said he has neither the capacity nor the desire to take the whole of Yemen but Saleh has ruled the country before and would rule it still if not for the 2011 uprising.

McFadden said this explains how the Houthis were able to take Sana'a in the first place, aided by security forces that still support Saleh.

He said: "Ali Abdullah has always been right there, with elements that remain loyal to him. One of the biggest ingredients is that sig elements of security apparatus remain loyal to him. So they provided no resistance when the Houthis pushed into Sana'a.