Click to see a larger map

Yemen is located in southern Arabia. The west is mountainous, with a fertile strip along the Red Sea. The center and south are largely arid mountains and desert. Until 1990 Yemen was two countries, the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in the west and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) in the south. The YAR was run by successive military regimes; the poorer PDRY was the Arab world's only Marxist state. Postunification conflict between the two ruling hierarchies, nominally in coalition, led to a two-month civil war in 1994, the ousting of the former Marxists, and a new constitution.