Yemen is suffering governmental paralysis as its administration is failing to cope with the multiple challenges that the country is facing. Economic collapse, security failings and secessionist aspirations in the south are some of the larger problems that the administration of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi is trying to handle with limited success.
Last week, Al Qaida terrorists captured a significant objective when they over-ran the army compound in the port city of Mukalla, the capital of the Hadramawt region. Al Qaida exploited the chronic failings of the Yemeni system by dressing like the Central Security special forces members when they attacked the base. The special forces have been running a longstanding feud with the regular army units in the south east of Yemen. The attack on Mukalla followed another major assault on the Yemeni army wherein an Al Qaida militant killed at least 56 soldiers and police in Shabwa province on September 20.
The Gulf Cooperation Council has offered to help Yemen several times and there have been repeated plans to get the national dialogue off the ground. Such a process may rekindle the lingering desire from all sides to make the country work, but the abject failures of civil governance will only encourage the secessionists in the south, the Al Houthi rebels in the north and Al Qaida in its bases throughout the country.
