North Yemen became independent of the
Ottoman Empire in
1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of
Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in
1967 from what became
South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a
Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen on
May 22,
1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued.
- See also : Yemen, War on Terrorism/Yemen