Thursday March 17

Updates

Shooting at the street of Justice in #Sana'a hits Mulatef Ahmed Al-Wanashi & Ahmed Abdulwahab Al-Qadi , shots were in the hands. #yemen #yf @Ahmed Ronaldo

Yemeni journalist Afrah Nassir Afrahnasser Afrah Nasser right now March 17
A military prsn hz annonced tht soldiers&officers who hv joined protesters outside Sana'a University and in other places are ex-servicemen.

Humanitarian News- Yemen - Foreign witnesses removed; local reporters and activists attacked, abducted
March 17, 2011 - 00:11
Yemeni authorities have arrested and deported at least six foreign journalists after coverage of government attacks that killed seven protesters in Sanaa over the weekend. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the International Press Institute (IPI) fear the deportations are setting the stage for further repression of local journalists and greater violence against protesters. And as thousands continue to march the streets demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down immediately, snipers are taking aim at unarmed demonstrators while security forces are arresting wounded demonstrators in hospitals, reports Human Rights Watch.

As tribes join protests, Yemen edges closer to brink
Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:55pm EDT
By Mohammed Ghobari and Erika Solomon

SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters)
At Sanaa University, thousands of people who have joined protests camp out together nightly, but they are no unified front: activists in jeans and t-shirts eye the tribesmen in white robes and colorful sashes sitting in separate tents.

"Revolutions around the world are always stolen by others once they succeed, but here, tribal sheikhs (leaders) are trying to steal the revolution before we've even won," said Tareq Saad, a student protester in the capital of Sanaa.

The tens of thousands of protestors taking to the streets daily across Yemen are fighting to bring down a government they see as corrupt and unable to lift them out of crushing poverty

Several tribal leaders have defected from Saleh over complaints that he is not sharing power with those outside his inner circle. At the same time, thousands of young tribesmen, often without approval from their sheikhs, are joining protests.

This younger generation argues it is no different from the students and activists trying to end Saleh's rule peacefully. They too suffer from Yemen's economic plight and feel their leaders don't share the wealth from the favors they receive.

"I've been here since the sit-ins began and I'll stay till the regime falls," said Ahsan al-Hamdani, from the Hamdan tribe. "My salary stopped being paid four years ago and my brother was killed in the Saada war (in the north.) We've lost everything."

Yemen is plagued by intermittent insurgencies in its north and south, and tribal leaders used to send followers to help Saleh crush them. But oil and water resources used to pay off supporters are drying up. Some 40 percent of Yemen's 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.

"The tribes are hungry," said the Yemen Peace Project's anonymous scholar on its blog. "Tribes are not loyal to any side in particular ... this depends primarily on financial support. Tribal areas suffer from a spiraling economic crisis, malnutrition and near complete neglect in the political scene.

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