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FIM-92 Stinger

The FIM-92 Stinger is an American man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) that operates as an infrared homing surface-to-air missile (SAM). It can be adapted to fire from a wide variety of ground vehicles, and from helicopters and drones as the Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS). It entered service in 1981 and is used by the militaries of the United States and 29 other countries. It is principally manufactured by Raytheon Missiles & Defense and is produced under license by Airbus Defence and Space in Germany and by Roketsan in Turkey.

Description
The FIM-92 Stinger is a passive surface-to-air missile that can be shoulder-fired by a single operator (although standard military procedure calls for two operators – team chief and gunner). The Stinger was intended to supplant the FIM-43 Redeye system, the principal difference being that, unlike the Redeye, the Stinger can acquire the target from head-on, giving much more time to acquire and destroy the target. The FIM-92B missile can also be fired from the M1097 Avenger and the M6 Linebacker. The missile is also capable of being deployed from a Humvee Stinger rack and can be used by airborne troops. A helicopter launched version exists and is called Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS).

The missile is 1.52 m long and 70 mm in diameter, with 100 mm fins. The missile itself weighs 10.1 kg, while the missile with its launch tube and integral sight, fitted with a gripstock and identification friend or foe (IFF) antenna, weighs approximately 15.2 kg. It has a targeting range of up to 4800 m and can engage low-altitude enemy threats at up to 3800 m.

The Stinger is launched by a small ejection motor that pushes it a safe distance from the operator before engaging the main two-stage solid-fuel sustainer, which accelerates it to a maximum speed of 2.54 Mach. The warhead contains 2.25 lb of HTA-3 (a mix of HMX, TNT, and aluminium powder) explosive with an impact fuze and a self-destruct timer that functions 17 seconds after launch.

To fire the missile, a BCU (Battery Coolant Unit) is inserted into the gripstock. This device consists of a supply of high-pressure gaseous argon, which is injected into the seeker to cryogenically cool it to operating temperature, and a thermal battery, which provides power for target acquisition: a single BCU provides power and coolant for roughly 45 seconds, after which another must be inserted if the missile has not been fired. The BCUs are somewhat sensitive to abuse and have a limited shelf life due to argon leakage. The IFF system receives power from a rechargeable battery, which is part of the IFF interrogator box, which plugs into the base of the gripstock's pistol grip. Guidance to the target is initially through proportional navigation, then switches to another mode that directs the missile towards the target airframe instead of its exhaust plume.

There are three main variants in use: the Stinger Basic, Stinger-Passive Optical Seeker Technique (POST), and Stinger-Reprogrammable Microprocessor (RMP). These correspond to the FIM-92A, FIM-92B, and FIM-92C and later variants respectively.

The POST and RMP variants have a dual-detector seeker: IR and UV. This allows it to distinguish targets from countermeasures much better than the Redeye and FIM-92A, which have IR-only. While modern flares can have an IR signature that is closely matched to the launching aircraft's engine exhaust, there is a readily distinguishable difference in UV signature between flares and jet engines. The Stinger-RMP is so-called because of its ability to load a new set of software via ROM chip inserted in the grip at the depot. If this download to the missile fails during power-up, basic functionality runs off the onboard ROM. The four-processor RMP has 4 KB of RAM for each processor. Since the downloaded code runs from RAM, there is little space to spare, particularly for processors dedicated to seeker input processing and target analysis.

History

The missile began as a program by General Dynamics to produce an improved variant of their 1967 FIM-43 Redeye. Production of the Redeye ran from 1969 to 1982, with a total production of around 85,000 missiles. The program was accepted for further development as Redeye II by the U.S. Army in 1971 and designated FIM-92; the Stinger appellation was chosen in 1972. Because of technical difficulties that dogged testing, the first shoulder launch was not until mid-1975. Production of the FIM-92A began in 1978. An improved Stinger with a new seeker, the FIM-92B, was produced from 1983 alongside the FIM-92A. Production of both the A and B types ended in 1987 with around 16,000 missiles produced.

The replacement FIM-92C began development in 1984, and production began in 1987. The first examples were delivered to frontline units in 1989. C-type missiles were fitted with a reprogrammable microprocessor, allowing for incremental firmware updates. Later missiles designated D received improvements to improve their ability to defeat countermeasures, and later upgrades to the D were designated G.

The FIM-92E or Stinger RMP Block I was developed from 1992 and delivered from 1995 (certain sources state that the FIM-92D is also part of the Block I development). The main changes were again in the sensor and the software, improving the missile's performance against low-signature targets. A software upgrade in 2001 was designated FIM-92F. The development of the Stinger RMP Block II began in 1996 using a new focal plane array sensor to improve the missile's effectiveness in "high clutter" environments and increase the engagement range to about 25,000 feet (7,600 m). Production was scheduled for 2004, but was cancelled due to budget cuts.

Since 1984 the Stinger has been issued to many U.S. Navy warships for point defense, particularly in Middle Eastern waters, with a three-man team that can perform other duties when not conducting Stinger training or maintenance. Until it was decommissioned in September 1993, the U.S. Navy had at least one Stinger Gunnery Detachment attached to Beachmaster Unit Two in Little Creek Virginia. The sailors of this detachment would deploy to carrier battlegroups in teams of two to four sailors per ship as requested by Battle Group Commanders.

Replacement
The original Stinger's reprogrammable microprocessor has become obsolete in 2023, and a service life extension will keep the Block I in service until 2030. With the arsenal declining from obsolescence, on 10 November 2020 the U.S. Army issued a request for information for a replacement MANPADS. The new system will be compatible with the Stinger Vehicle Universal Launcher used on the IM-SHORAD and be able to defeat fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, as well as Group 2 and 3 UAS as well as or better than the Stinger. A contract for up to 8,000 missiles is planned to be awarded by 2026. The request for information to interested firms only went out in April 2022, and RTX and Lockheed Martin were selected to competitively develop the Stinger replacement in September 2023.

According to Reuters, the U.S. government has signed a contract for 1,468 Stingers worth a total of $687 million, to replenish stock sent to Ukraine. Raytheon Chief Executive Greg Hayes said on 26 April 2022: "Some of the components are no longer commercially available, and so we're going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile of the seeker head. That's going to take us a little bit of time".

In January 2023, the U.S. Army said it expected to increase Stinger production to 60 missiles per month by 2025, an increase of 50% from the current rate. The Dual Detector Assembly (DDA) will be redesigned because a previous DDA part is no longer being made. The old DDA will continue to be used in production up until stocks are exhausted, which is expected by 2026 when deliveries of Stingers with the new component are expected to begin.

Variants

 * Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS): Used as short range air-to-air missile. The system is mainly designed for attack helicopters.
 * FIM-92A: Stinger Basic: The basic model.
 * FIM-92B: Stinger POST: In this version, the infrared seeker head was replaced by a combined IR/UV seeker that utilized rosette scanning. This resulted in achieving significantly higher resistance to enemy countermeasures (flares) and natural disturbances. Production ran from 1981 to 1987; a total of 600 missiles were produced.
 * FIM-92C: Stinger RMP: The resistance to interference was increased again by adding more powerful digital computer components. Moreover, the software of the missile could now be reconfigured in a short time in order to respond quickly and efficiently to new types of countermeasures. Until 1991, some 20,000 units were produced for the U.S. Army alone.
 * FIM-92D: Various modifications were continued with this version in order to increase the resistance to interference.
 * FIM-92E: Stinger—RMP Block I: By adding a new rollover sensor and revised control software, the flight behavior was significantly improved. Additionally, the performance against small targets such as drones, cruise missiles and light reconnaissance helicopters was improved. The first deliveries began in 1995. Almost the entire stock of U.S. Stinger missiles was replaced by this version.
 * FIM-92F: A further improvement of the E version and the current production version.
 * FIM-92G: An unspecified upgrade for the D variant.
 * FIM-92H: Indicates a D variant that has been upgraded to the E standard.
 * Stinger—RMP Block II: This variant was a planned developed based on the E version. The improvements included an imaging infrared seeker head from the AIM-9X. With this modification, the detection distance and the resistance to jamming was to be greatly increased. Changes to the airframe would furthermore enable a significant increase in range. Although the missile reached the testing phase, the program was dropped in 2002 for budgetary reasons.
 * FIM-92J: Block I missile upgrade to replace aging components to extend service life an additional 10 years. Upgrades include a proximity fuze warhead section, equipped with a target detection device to increase effectiveness against unmanned aerial vehicles, a new flight motor and gas generator cartridge, as well as new designs for the o-rings and integral desiccant cartridge.
 * FIM-92K: Variant of FIM-92J designed to use a vehicle datalink rather than the missile's own seeker for targeting.
 * ADSM: Air Defense Suppression Missile: Cancelled experiment variant fitted with a passive radar seeker, designed to be used against radar wave transmitters. The program began in FY 1983 and a final report was issued 3 December 1986.

Falklands War
The Stinger's combat debut occurred during the Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas) fought between the United Kingdom and Argentina. At the onset of the conflict soldiers of the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) had been clandestinely equipped with six missiles, although they had received little instruction in their use. The sole SAS trooper who had received training on the system, and was due to train other troops, was killed in a helicopter crash on 19 May.

Nonetheless, on 21 May 1982 an SAS soldier engaged and shot down an Argentine Pucará ground attack aircraft with a Stinger. On 30 May, at about 11:00 a.m., an Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma helicopter was brought down by another missile, also fired by the SAS, in the vicinity of Mount Kent. Six Argentine National Gendarmerie Special Forces troops were killed and eight more wounded.

The main MANPADS used by both sides during the Falklands War was the Blowpipe missile.

Soviet War in Afghanistan
In late 1985, several groups, such as Free the Eagle, began arguing the CIA was not doing enough to support the Mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War. Michael Pillsbury, Vincent Cannistraro, and others put enormous bureaucratic pressure on the CIA to provide the Stinger to the rebels. The idea was controversial because up to that point, the CIA had been operating with the pretense that the United States was not involved in the war directly, for various reasons. All weapons supplied up to that point were non-U.S. sourced weapons, including Kalashnikov style assault rifles made in China and Egypt.

The final say-so came down to President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, through whom the CIA had to pass all of its funding and weapons to the Mujahideen. President Zia constantly had to gauge how much he could "make the pot boil" in Afghanistan without provoking a Soviet invasion of his own country. According to George Crile III, U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson's relationship with Zia was instrumental in the final go-ahead for the Stinger introduction.

Wilson and his associates at first viewed the Stinger as "just adding another component to the lethal mix we were building." Their increasingly successful Afghanistan strategy, formed largely by Michael G. Vickers, was based on a broad mix of weapons, tactics, and logistics, not a 'silver bullet solution' of a single weapon. Furthermore, the previous attempts to provide MANPADs to the Mujahideen, namely the SA-7 and Blowpipe, hadn't worked very well.

Engineer Ghaffar, of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami, brought down the first Hind gunship with a Stinger on 25 September 1986 near Jalalabad. As part of Operation Cyclone, the CIA eventually supplied nearly 500 Stingers (some sources claim 1,500–2,000) to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and 250 launchers.

The impact of the Stinger on the outcome of the war is contested, particularly in the translation between the impact on the tactical battlefield to the strategic level withdrawal, and the influence the first had on the second. Dr. Robert F. Baumann (of the Staff College at Fort Leavenworth) described its impact on "Soviet tactical operations" as "unmistakable". This opinion was shared by Yossef Bodansky. Soviet, and later, Russian, accounts give little significance to the Stinger for strategically ending the war.

According to the 1993 U.S. Air Defense Artillery Yearbook, the Mujahideen gunners used the supplied Stingers to score approximately 269 total aircraft kills in about 340 engagements, a 79% kill probability. If this report is accurate, Stingers would be responsible for over half of the 451 Soviet aircraft losses in Afghanistan. But these statistics are based on Mujahideen self-reporting, which is of unknown reliability. Selig Harrison rejects such figures, quoting a Russian general who claims the United States "greatly exaggerated" Soviet and Afghan aircraft losses during the war. According to Soviet figures, in 1987–1988, only 35 aircraft and 63 helicopters were destroyed by all causes. The Pakistan Army fired 28 Stingers at enemy aircraft with no kill. According to Soviet figures, by 25 December 1987, only 38 aircraft (airplanes, helicopters) were lost and 14 more were damaged by MANPADS (Blowpipe or Stinger), or 10.2% kill probability.

According to Crile, who includes information from Alexander Prokhanov, the Stinger was a "turning point". Milt Bearden saw it as a "force multiplier" and morale booster. Representative Charlie Wilson, the politician behind Operation Cyclone, described the first Stinger Mi-24 shootdowns in 1986 as one of the three crucial moments of his experience in the war, saying "we never really won a set-piece battle before September 26, and then we never lost one afterwards." He was given the first spent Stinger tube as a gift and kept it on his office wall. That launch tube is now on exhibit at the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Other military analysts tend to be dismissive of the impact of the Stinger. According to Alan J. Kuperman, the Stingers did make an impact at first but within a few months flares, beacons, and exhaust baffles were installed to disorient the missiles, along with night operation and terrain-hugging tactics to prevent the rebels from getting a clear shot. By 1988, Kuperman states, the Mujahideen had all but stopped firing them. Another source (Jonathan Steele) states that Stingers forced Soviet helicopters and ground attack planes to bomb from higher altitudes with less accuracy, but did not bring down many more aircraft than Chinese heavy machine guns and other less sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry.

The last Stingers were supplied in 1988 after increasing reports of fighters selling them to Iran and thawing relations with Moscow. After the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. attempted to buy back the Stinger missiles, with a $55 million program launched in 1990 to buy back around 300 missiles (US$183,300 each). The U.S. government collected most of the Stingers it had delivered, but by 1996 around 600 were unaccounted for and some found their way into Croatia, Iran, Sri Lanka, Qatar, and North Korea. According to the CIA, already in August 1988 the U.S. had demanded from Qatar the return of Stinger missiles. Wilson later told CBS he "lived in terror" that a civilian airliner would be shot down by a Stinger, but he did not have misgivings about having provided Stingers to defeat the Soviets.

The story of the Stingers in Afghanistan was popularly told in the media by Western sources primarily, notably in Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile, and Ghost Wars by Steve Coll.

Angolan civil war
The Reagan administration provided 310 Stingers to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement in Angola between 1986 and 1989. As in Afghanistan, efforts to recover missiles after the end of hostilities proved incomplete. The battery of a Stinger lasts for four or five years, so any battery supplied in the 1980s would now be inoperative but during the Syrian Civil War, insurgents showed how easily they switched to different batteries, including common car batteries, as power sources for several MANPADS models.

Libyan invasion of Chad
The French army used 15 firing positions and 30 missiles purchased in 1983 for operations in Chad. The 35th Parachute Artillery Regiment made an unsuccessful fire during a Libyan bombardment on 10 September 1987 and shot down a Hercules transport aircraft on 7 July 1988.

The Chadian government received Stinger missiles from the United States, when Libya invaded the northern part of the African country. On 8 October 1987, a Libyan Su-22MK was shot down by a FIM-92A fired by Chadian forces. The pilot, Capt. Diya al-Din, ejected and was captured. He was later granted political asylum by the French government. During the recovery operation, a Libyan MiG-23MS was shot down by a FIM-92A.

Tajik civil war
Tajik Islamist opposition forces operating from Afghanistan during the 1992–97 Tajik civil war encountered a heavy air campaign launched by Russia and Uzbekistan to prop up the government in Dushanbe that included border and cross-border raids. During one of these operations, a Sukhoi Su-24M was shot down on 3 May 1993 with a Stinger fired by the opposition. Both Russian pilots were rescued.

Chechen War
Russian officials claimed several times that the Chechen militia and insurgents possessed US-made Stinger missiles. They attributed a few of their aerial losses to the American MANPADS. The presence of such missiles was confirmed by photo evidence, and were said to originate from Afghan smuggling routes that passed through Georgia. It is believed one Sukhoi Su-24 was shot down by a Stinger missile during the Second Chechen War.

Sri Lankan civil war
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam also managed to acquire one or several Stingers, possibly from former Mujahideen stocks, and used at least one to down a Sri Lanka Air Force Mi-24 on 10 November 1997.

United States
In 2000, the U.S. inventory contained 13,400 missiles. The total cost of the program is $7,281,000,000. It is rumored that the United States Secret Service has Stinger missiles to defend the President, a notion that has never been dispelled; however, U.S. Secret Service plans favor moving the President to a safer place in the event of an attack rather than shooting down the plane, lest the missile (or the wreckage of the target aircraft) hit innocents.

During the 1980s, the Stinger was used to support different US-aligned guerrilla forces, notably the Afghan Mujahidins, the Chad government against the Libyan invasion and the Angolan UNITA. The Nicaraguan contras were not provided with Stingers due to the lack of fixed wing aircraft of the Sandinista government, as such the previous generation FIM-43 Redeye was considered adequate.

Syrian civil war
In the Syrian civil war, Turkey reportedly helped to transport a limited amount of FIM-92 Stingers to the Free Syrian Army.

On 27 February 2020, during the northwestern offensive launched in December 2019 by the Syrian regime (backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah), Russian and Syrian aircraft (variously reportedly as Russian Su-34s and Syrian Su-22) attacked a Turkish military convoy near Idlib, killing 36 Turkish soldiers. That day, video footage emerged of alleged Turkish soldiers (backing Syrian opposition fighters) firing what apparently looks like a Roketsan-made Stinger against either Russian or Syrian aircraft (or possibly against both).

Russo-Ukrainian War
In February 2022, several countries announced that they were providing Stinger missiles to Ukrainian forces defending against the Russian invasion. Germany announced that it would provide 500 missiles. Denmark said that it will provide parts for 300 missiles, to be assembled in the United States. The Netherlands stated they would supply 200 units. Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States each stated that they would provide undisclosed amounts.

By 7 March, the U.S. reported that it and its NATO allies had together sent more than 2,000 Stinger missiles to Ukraine. In late April 2022, Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investors that the company was experiencing supply chain issues and would not be able to ramp up production of Stinger missiles until 2023. This delay was in part due to the fact the Stinger was scheduled to be replaced in the 2020s and thus contained obsolete components, which have to be redesigned for modern procurement. As of 11 May, the U.S. had sent a quarter of its aging Stinger missile stockpile to Ukraine.

On 20 August 2022, Russia supplied a single Stinger to Iran, for them to attempt reverse engineering the modern version of it.

Countries

 * 🇦🇱: In May 2022, Minister Niko Peleshi announced the purchase of Javelin and Stinger missiles
 * undefined: used by Afghan Mujahideen.
 * 🇦🇴 Angola
 * 🇦🇺: formerly used by SASR in Afghanistan.
 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * 🇹🇩 Chad: limited use.
 * 🇮🇹: Used by the Army and Marines.
 * : Used by the Air Force.
 * lit. : Used by the Air Force.
 * 🇲🇦: Part of a $4.25 billion AH-64E deal
 * 🇳🇱: Used by the Army and Marines.
 * 🇵🇰: 350 in service with the Pakistan Army.
 * : In 2021 Portuguese Army acquired new missiles and sights.
 * 🇶🇦 Qatar: Used by the Air Force.
 * 🇹🇼: Republic of China Navy, Republic of China Marine Corps, Republic of China Army
 * 🇹🇷: Stingers made under license by Roketsan. 4,800+ Stinger missiles were supplied under "Stinger Air Defense Guided Missile System European Common Production Program". Additional 1,000 Stinger needs were identified in July 2000 and the deliveries were completed in 2003.
 * 🇺🇦: Lithuania and Latvia have transferred unknown quantities of Stinger missiles from their inventory to Ukraine after receiving an approval from the U.S. State Department. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with 200 Stinger missiles. Germany will supply 500 Stingers. On 16 March 2022, the U.S. announced that an additional 800 Stinger missiles would be transferred, following an earlier transfer of over 600 missiles. Italy sent an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles since spring 2022.
 * 🇮🇹: Used by the Army and Marines.
 * : Used by the Air Force.
 * lit. : Used by the Air Force.
 * 🇲🇦: Part of a $4.25 billion AH-64E deal
 * 🇳🇱: Used by the Army and Marines.
 * 🇵🇰: 350 in service with the Pakistan Army.
 * : In 2021 Portuguese Army acquired new missiles and sights.
 * 🇶🇦 Qatar: Used by the Air Force.
 * 🇹🇼: Republic of China Navy, Republic of China Marine Corps, Republic of China Army
 * 🇹🇷: Stingers made under license by Roketsan. 4,800+ Stinger missiles were supplied under "Stinger Air Defense Guided Missile System European Common Production Program". Additional 1,000 Stinger needs were identified in July 2000 and the deliveries were completed in 2003.
 * 🇺🇦: Lithuania and Latvia have transferred unknown quantities of Stinger missiles from their inventory to Ukraine after receiving an approval from the U.S. State Department. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with 200 Stinger missiles. Germany will supply 500 Stingers. On 16 March 2022, the U.S. announced that an additional 800 Stinger missiles would be transferred, following an earlier transfer of over 600 missiles. Italy sent an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles since spring 2022.
 * 🇳🇱: Used by the Army and Marines.
 * 🇵🇰: 350 in service with the Pakistan Army.
 * : In 2021 Portuguese Army acquired new missiles and sights.
 * 🇶🇦 Qatar: Used by the Air Force.
 * 🇹🇼: Republic of China Navy, Republic of China Marine Corps, Republic of China Army
 * 🇹🇷: Stingers made under license by Roketsan. 4,800+ Stinger missiles were supplied under "Stinger Air Defense Guided Missile System European Common Production Program". Additional 1,000 Stinger needs were identified in July 2000 and the deliveries were completed in 2003.
 * 🇺🇦: Lithuania and Latvia have transferred unknown quantities of Stinger missiles from their inventory to Ukraine after receiving an approval from the U.S. State Department. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with 200 Stinger missiles. Germany will supply 500 Stingers. On 16 March 2022, the U.S. announced that an additional 800 Stinger missiles would be transferred, following an earlier transfer of over 600 missiles. Italy sent an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles since spring 2022.
 * 🇹🇼: Republic of China Navy, Republic of China Marine Corps, Republic of China Army
 * 🇹🇷: Stingers made under license by Roketsan. 4,800+ Stinger missiles were supplied under "Stinger Air Defense Guided Missile System European Common Production Program". Additional 1,000 Stinger needs were identified in July 2000 and the deliveries were completed in 2003.
 * 🇺🇦: Lithuania and Latvia have transferred unknown quantities of Stinger missiles from their inventory to Ukraine after receiving an approval from the U.S. State Department. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with 200 Stinger missiles. Germany will supply 500 Stingers. On 16 March 2022, the U.S. announced that an additional 800 Stinger missiles would be transferred, following an earlier transfer of over 600 missiles. Italy sent an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles since spring 2022.
 * 🇹🇼: Republic of China Navy, Republic of China Marine Corps, Republic of China Army
 * 🇹🇷: Stingers made under license by Roketsan. 4,800+ Stinger missiles were supplied under "Stinger Air Defense Guided Missile System European Common Production Program". Additional 1,000 Stinger needs were identified in July 2000 and the deliveries were completed in 2003.
 * 🇺🇦: Lithuania and Latvia have transferred unknown quantities of Stinger missiles from their inventory to Ukraine after receiving an approval from the U.S. State Department. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with 200 Stinger missiles. Germany will supply 500 Stingers. On 16 March 2022, the U.S. announced that an additional 800 Stinger missiles would be transferred, following an earlier transfer of over 600 missiles. Italy sent an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles since spring 2022.

Organizations

 * UNITA

title: FIM-92 Stinger


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Aden

Aden (عَدَنْ, Old South Arabian: 𐩲𐩵𐩬) is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and north of the Gulf of Aden. With its strategic location on the coastline, Aden serves as a gateway between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, making it a crucial maritime hub connecting Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. As of 2023, Aden City has a population of approximately 1,080,000 residents, making it one of the largest cities in Yemen.

The city, with its rich trade history, embraces a vibrant blend of Arabic, Indian, and African influences. Positioned near the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, a vital maritime route, it serves as a crucial seaport. The city boasts key infrastructure like Aden International Airport and notable healthcare institutions including Aljoumhouria Teaching Hospital (Queen Elizabeth II), Aden General Hospital, and Friendship Teaching Hospital. Aden is divided into eight districts: Tawahi, Mualla, Crater, Khur Maksar, Al Mansura, Dar Sad, Sheikh Othman, and Al Buraiqa. These form today's Aden Governorate. During British Colonialism, Aden referred to the area along the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, encompassing Tawahi, Mualla, Crater, and much of Khur Maksar District. The western harbor peninsula, known as Little Aden, now falls within the Al Buraiqa District. Before gaining independence, Aden comprised distinct sub-centers: Crater, the original port; Ma'alla, the modern port; Tawahi, formerly "Steamer Point"; and Gold Mohur resorts. Khormaksar, on the isthmus connecting Aden to the mainland, hosts diplomatic missions, Aden University's main offices, and Aden International Airport. On the mainland, sub-centers include Sheikh Othman, an old oasis area; Al-Mansura, a British-planned town; and Madinat ash-Sha'b (formerly Madinat al-Ittihad), the former capital of the South Arabian Federation, now housing a large power/desalination facility and additional Aden University faculties.

Aden encloses the eastern side of a vast, natural harbour that constitutes the modern port. A long time ago this necessitated the existence of Aden's reservoirs, the Cisterns of Tawila. As described by 14th century scholar Ibn Battuta, "These reservoirs accumulate rainwater for the sole purpose of drinking for the city's citizens." Little Aden became the site of the oil refinery and tanker port. Both were established and operated by British Petroleum until they were turned over to South Yemeni government ownership and control in 1978.

Aden used to be the capital of South Yemen until its unity with North Yemen in 22 May 1990. It is currently the temporary capital of Yemen since the 2014 Coup d'état, hosting some members of the Cabinet of Yemen mainly in al-Maashiq Palace. It is also the seat of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council, which exercises control over the city.

Etymology
Aden is a home and a place for ships, and the word Aden means reside in the place, so the word “Aden” means resident, and it is said “Aden Al-Balad,” meaning the settlement of the country. Among the sayings of geographers about the city:

Yaqut al-Hamwi said: "It is a famous city on the coast of the Indian Sea, towards the Yemen, and it is poor, with no water or pasture. They drink from a spring between it and Aden, about a distance of about today, and despite that, it is bad, except that this place is the port for Indian ships, and merchants gather there for that reason, as it is a town of trade." And it is added to Abyan, which is the opposite of Aden in its entirety.

Ibn Manzur said: “It is a country on the edge of the sea in the farthest part of Yemen.”

Ibn Khaldun said: “This Aden is one of the most fortified cities in Yemen, and it is on the bank of the Indian Sea. It is still a country of trade from the time of the Trabaids, and most of them were built with stones, which is why silk merchants visit it often.”

Antiquity
Aden is an ancient port and was mentioned by the Greeks under the name (Αραβία Εμπόριον), which means an Arabic trade port. The port's convenient position on the sea route between India and Europe has made Aden desirable to rulers who sought to possess it at various times throughout history. Known as Eudaemon (Ευδαίμων, meaning "blissful, prosperous,") in the 1st century BC, it was a transshipping point for the Red Sea trade, but fell on hard times when new shipping practices by-passed it and made the daring direct crossing to India in the 1st century AD, according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The same work describes Aden as "a village by the shore," which would well describe the town of Crater while it was still little-developed. There is no mention of fortification at this stage, Aden was more an island than a peninsula as the isthmus (a tombolo) was not then so developed as it is today. Aden was explicitly mentioned by this name in the Book of Ezekiel, which talks about Jerusalem, and it says: "'The merchants of Sheba and Raamah are your merchants. They set up your markets with the finest perfumes and every precious stone and gold. Harran, Qena, and Aden are the merchants of Sheba, and Assyria and Kilmud are your merchants.'"At its beginning, the city was a small peninsula with no significant natural resources, but its location between Egypt and India made it important in the ancient global trade route. The city was the home of the ancient Kingdom of Osan from the eighth to seventh centuries BC. In the beginning of the seventh century BC, Karbil Watar I, king of the Kingdom of Sheba, launched a campaign against Osan during which, according to the Sabaean texts, sixteen thousand people were killed, forty thousand people were enslaved, and the kings of Awsan made offerings to the god. al-Maqah, according to the inscription that Karbiel Watar I left in Sirwah, commemorating his victory.

In the second half of the first century BC, the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar determined to control Arabia Felix and reach the Indian Ocean. The Roman governor of Egypt, Aelius Gallus, was sent in 25 BC. The campaign ended with disastrous results and the annihilation of the Roman army in front of the walls of Ma'rib. The Himyarites overthrew the Kingdom of Sheba in 275 AD and took control of Aden. Recent incomplete archaeological studies suggest that the Himyarites were the ones who built the huge water cisterns currently known as the “Cisterns of Aden,” which stored approximately 136,382,757 liters of water.

The Himyarite Kingdom fell in the first quarter of the sixth century AD. Yusuf Dhu Nuwas mentioned Bab al-Mandab in one of his writings. The forces of the Kingdom of Aksum were entering Yemen through it. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I sent a fleet to fight the Himyarite Jews and support the Kingdom of Aksum and the Christians of Najran. The fleet entered through Aden. Byzantine sources indicate that the Sasanian Empire took control of the city in 671 AD.

A local legend in Yemen states that Aden may be as old as human history itself. Some also believe that Cain and Abel are buried somewhere in the city.

Medieval history
Although the pre-Islamic Himyar civilization was capable of building large structures, there seems to have been little fortification at this stage. Fortifications at Mareb and other places in Yemen and the Hadhramaut make it clear that both the Himyar and the Sabean cultures were well capable of it. Thus, watchtowers, since destroyed, are possible. However, the Arab historians Ibn al Mujawir and Abu Makhramah attribute the first fortification of Aden to Beni Zuree'a. Abu Makhramah has also included a detailed biography of Muhammad Azim Sultan Qamarbandi Naqsh in his work, Tarikh ul-Yemen. The aim seems to have been twofold: to keep hostile forces out and to maintain revenue by controlling the movement of goods, thereby preventing smuggling. In its original form, some of this work was relatively feeble.

With the introduction of Islam to Yemen in the seventh century AD, Aden experienced a period of stagnation that lasted until the ninth century AD. In the early years of Islam, Aden belonged to the province of Jund (Taiz). It was controlled by the state of Ziyadid and the Sulayhid. After the death of Ali bin Muhammad Al-Sulayhi, his son took charge of Zurayids, and Aden continued to pay the annual royalty until Queen Arwa bint Ahmed Al-Sulayhi reduced it. After the fall of the Sulayhid state, the Banu Zurayi became independent in Aden, taking advantage of the Sulayhids’ preoccupation with the Khawlan tribes. The Zurayites continued to rule Aden, Lahj, and Abyan for less than forty years until they fell under the Ayyubids’ control of the city. A major battle took place between Turan Shah bin Ayyub and Yasser bin Bilal al-Muhammadi, Minister of State, and the Zurayiyyah were defeated and al-Muhammadi fled to Taiz. One of the most important reasons that contributed to the defeat of the Zurayids was their ongoing wars with the Bani Mahdi in Tihama and the departure of their army to confront the Ayyubids instead of fortifying themselves in Aden.

After 1175, rebuilding in a more solid form began, and ever since Aden became a popular city attracting sailors and merchants from Egypt, Sindh, Gujarat, East Africa and even China. According to Muqaddasi, Persians formed the majority of Aden's population in the 10th century.

During the Ayyubid period in Yemen, Sana'a and its environs were more hostile to their presence than other regions. The Zaidi tribes were able to defeat the Ayyubids in 1226, but Omar bin Rasul, the founder of the Rasulid state, was able to repel them, so he tightened his control over Aden. The city regained its position during the days of the Rasulids, so they dug wells and built schools, and Aden flourished commercially. The kings of Bani Rasul were also merchants and enacted a number of laws and regulations to codify trade in the city.

The Banu Tahir were able to control Aden after the Banu Rasool, and the Italian traveler Lodovico di Verthama describes it as one of the most powerful cities seen on Earth during the days of the Tahirids. The Portuguese began expanding into the Indian Ocean and by 1498 they realized that Aden was their key to entering the Red Sea. The Mamluks in Egypt sensed the danger and sent a force led by Hussein al-Kurdi. The victorious King Amer bin Abdul Wahhab provided great aid to the Kurds, but he suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Diu. The Mamluks sent a second fleet, but the victorious king refused to cooperate with the Mamluks because he had succeeded in repelling the Portuguese from Aden without their help. Hussein al-Kurdi became angry and allied with the Zaidi Imam, who was opposed to the Tahirids, al-Mutawakkil Sharaf al-Din, and the Tahirid cities fell successively, with the exception of Aden. The Ottoman Empire took control of the city in 1538. The Ottomans' goal was to prevent the Portuguese from controlling Aden, so the city witnessed difficult days, in addition to the fact that the port of Mocha gained greater importance at the expense of Aden during the sixteenth century. The city's population declined and it turned into a small village with a population of no more than 600 people. While its population was approximately eighty thousand people during the days of the Rasulid state. In 1421, China's Ming dynasty Yongle Emperor ordered principal envoy grand eunuch Li Xing and grand eunuch Zhou Man of Zheng He's fleet to convey an imperial edict with hats and robes to bestow on the king of Aden. The envoys boarded three treasure ships and set sail from Sumatra to the port of Aden. This event was recorded in the book Yingyai Shenglan by Ma Huan who accompanied the imperial envoy.

In 1513, the Portuguese, led by Afonso de Albuquerque, launched an unsuccessful four-day naval siege of Aden.

After Ottoman rule, Aden was ruled by the Sultanate of Lahej, under suzerainty of the Zaidi imams of Yemen. The first political intercourse between Lahej and the British took place in 1799, when a naval force was sent from Great Britain, with a detachment of troops from India, to occupy the island of Perim and prevent all communication of the French in Egypt with the Indian Ocean, by way of the Red Sea. The island of Perim was found unsuitable for troops, and the Sultan of Lahej, Ahmed bin Abdul Karim, received the detachment for some time at Aden. He proposed to enter into an alliance and to grant Aden as a permanent station, but the offer was declined. A Treaty was, however, concluded with the Sultan in 1802 by Admiral Sir Home Popham, who was instructed to enter into political and commercial alliances with the Chiefs oil the Arabian coast of the Red Sea.

Modern history
The situation was different in the north of the country, where the Zaidis did not recognize the authority of the Ottomans and revolted against them many times, the most recent of which was the revolution of Imam Al-Mansur Billah Al-Qasim bin Muhammad bin Al-Qasim, who and his son Al-Mu'ayyad Billah Muhammad were able to unite the tribes and expel the Ottomans. The imams relied on the revenues from the port of Mocha, and Aden was not as important as the Abadlahs were. At the end of the eighteenth century, Sultan Fadl al-Abdali concluded an alliance with the Yafi tribes to rebel against the Zaidi imams and monopolize Aden's revenues equally among them. The Sultan of Lahej got rid of the imams, but he did not fulfill his promise to Yafa. The Zaidi imams did not recognize inheritance and saw fighting for the imamate, so the war between Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Ishaq and Al-Mansur Al-Hussein bin Al-Mutawakkil prolonged, so Al-Abdali took the opportunity to declare his independence in Lahej and Aden. The English had been visiting Aden and Mocha from 1609, led by Sir Henry Middleton, who was imprisoned, his ships confiscated, and eight of his men killed.

The British tried to conclude treaties with the Zaidi imams after the Ottomans were expelled from Aden. They visited Sana'a and Mokha, but they treated the British ambassador poorly and rejected his offer. Things were different when the Abdali gained independence from Lahj and Medina. They signed a treaty with the British in 1802, stipulating that they build a factory in Crater and allocate a special cemetery for English subjects free of charge. The Abdali wanted English protection from the tribes. Sultan Fadl bin Ali was killed by Yafi’ gunmen, then one of the sheikhs of Al-Hujariya invaded Lahj and besieged it for five months. Al-Awaliq also besieged it with eight thousand fighters, and they did not leave until Sultan Ahmed bin Abdul Karim paid them seven thousand dollars. Then the Fadl family attacked Aden in 1836.

British administration 1839–1967

In 1609 The Ascension was the first English ship to visit Aden, before sailing on to Mocha during the fourth voyage of the East India Company.

British interests in Aden began in 1796 with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, after which a British fleet docked at Aden for several months at the invitation of the sultan. The French were defeated in Egypt in 1801, and their privateers were tracked down over the subsequent decade. By 1800, Aden was a small village with a population of 600 Arabs, Somalis, Jews, and Indians—housed for the most part in huts of reed matting erected among ruins recalling a vanished era of wealth and prosperity. As there was little British trade in the Red Sea, most British politicians until the 1830s had no further interest in the area beyond the suppression of piracy. However, a small number of government officials and the East India Company officials thought that a British base in the area was necessary to prevent another French advance through Egypt or Russian expansion through Persia. The emergence of Muhammad Ali of Egypt as a strong local ruler only increased their concerns. The governor of Bombay from 1834 to 1838, Sir Robert Grant, was one of those who believed that India could only be protected by preemptively seizing "places of strength" to protect the Indian Ocean.

The Red Sea increased in importance after the steamship HCS Hugh Lindsay sailed from Bombay to the Suez isthmus in 1830, stopping at Aden with the sultan's consent to resupply with coal. Although cargo was still carried around the Cape of Good Hope in sailing ships, a steam route to the Suez could provide a much quicker option for transporting officials and important communications. Grant felt that armed ships steaming regularly between Bombay and Suez would help secure British interests in the region and did all he could to progress his vision. After lengthy negotiations due to the costs of investing in the new technology, the government agreed to pay half the costs for six voyages per year and the East India Company board approved the purchase of two new steamers in 1837. Grant immediately announced that monthly voyages to Suez would take place, despite the fact that no secure coaling station had been found.

In 1838, under Muhsin bin Fadl, Lahej ceded 194 km2 including Aden to the British. On 19 January 1839, the British East India Company landed Royal Marines at Aden to secure the territory and stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India. In 1850 it was declared a free trade port, with the liquor, salt, arms, and opium trades developing duties as it won all the coffee trade from Mokha. The port lies about equidistant from the Suez Canal, Bombay, and Zanzibar, which were all important British possessions. Aden had been an entrepôt and a way-station for seamen in the ancient world. There, supplies, particularly water, were replenished, so, in the mid-19th century, it became necessary to replenish coal and boiler water. Thus Aden acquired a coaling station at Steamer Point and Aden was to remain under British control until November 1967. Until 1937, Aden was governed as part of British India and was known as the Aden Settlement. Its original territory was enlarged in 1857 by the 13 km2 island of Perim, in 1868 by the 73 km2 Khuriya Muriya Islands, and in 1915 by the 108 km2 island of Kamaran. The settlement would become Aden Province in 1935. In 1937, the settlement was detached from India and became the Colony of Aden, a British Crown colony. The change in government was a step towards the change in monetary units seen in the stamps illustrating this article. When British India became independent in 1947, Indian rupees (divided into annas) were replaced in Aden by East African shillings. The hinterland of Aden and Hadhramaut were also loosely tied to Britain as the Aden Protectorate, which was overseen from Aden.

Aden's location also made it a useful entrepôt for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe. Thus, a ship passing from Suez to Bombay could leave mail for Mombasa at Aden for collection (See Postage stamps and postal history of Aden).The 1947 Aden riots saw more than 80 Jews killed, their property looted and schools burned by a Muslim mob. After the Suez Crisis in 1956, Aden became the main location in the region for the British.

Aden sent a team of two to the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia.

Federation of South Arabia and the Aden Emergency

In order to stabilize Aden and the surrounding Aden Protectorate from the designs of the Egyptian backed republicans of North Yemen, the British attempted to gradually unite the disparate states of the region in preparation for eventual independence. On 18 January 1963, the Colony of Aden was incorporated into the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South against the wishes of North Yemen. The city became the State of Aden and the Federation was renamed the Federation of South Arabia (FSA).

An insurgency against British administration known as the Aden Emergency began with a grenade attack by the communist National Liberation Front (NLF), against the British High Commissioner on 10 December 1963, killing one person and injuring fifty, and a "state of emergency" was declared.

In 1964, Britain announced its intention to grant independence to the FSA in 1968, but that the British military would remain in Aden. The security situation deteriorated as NLF and FLOSY (Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen) vied for the upper hand.

In January 1967, there were mass riots between the NLF and their rival FLOSY supporters in the old Arab quarter of Aden town. This conflict continued until mid February, despite the intervention of British troops. On 20 June 1967, 23 British Army soldiers were ambushed and shot dead by members of Aden Police during the Aden Mutiny in the Crater District. During the period there were as many attacks on the British troops by both sides as against each other culminating in the destruction of an Aden Airways DC3 plane in the air with no survivors.

The increased violence was a determining factor in the British ensuring all families were evacuated more quickly than initially intended, as recorded in From Barren Rocks to Living Stones.

On 30 November 1967, British troops were evacuated, leaving Aden and the rest of the FSA under NLF control. The Royal Marines, who had been the first British troops to arrive in Aden in 1839, were the last to leave – with the exception of a Royal Engineer detachment (10 Airfields Squadron left Aden on 13 December 1967). As part of a larger Royal Navy task force, HMS Albion's helicopters lifted off remaining Royal Marine commandos left to secure the airfield.

Post-independence
The last British soldier left Aden on November 30, 1967, and the National Liberation Front had the upper hand at the expense of the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen, whose members were divided between joining the National Front or leaving for North Yemen, so Abdullah Al-Asanj and Muhammad Basindwa left for North Yemen. Qahtan al-Sha'bi assumed the presidency of the new state, and the sheikhdoms of the Eastern Protectorate of Hadramaut and Al-Mahra were annexed to the new state. Al-Shaabi took over a new country with a collapsed economy. Civilian workers and businessmen left, and English support stopped. The closure of the Suez Canal in 1967 played an important role in the country’s economy, as it reduced the number of ships crossing Aden by 75%.

The new state was divided into six governorates on December 11, 1967, in order to end the manifestations of tribalism in the state and ignore the tribal borders between the defunct sheikhdoms. On March 20, 1968, Qahtan dismissed all leftist leaders from the government and party membership. He was able to put down a rebellion led by leftist factions in the army in May of the same year, and faced new rebellions from leftist parties in July, August and December of 1968. This is because all Arab countries welcomed the front. National Liberation received a cold reception. Regimes like Egypt wanted to merge the National Front with the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen, where the leftist section was more numerous than the supporters of the popular Qahtan. They wanted a regime that would lead the masses and face the great challenges facing the new state, the most important of which was the bankruptcy of the treasury.

Qahtan al-Shaabi dismissed Interior Minister Muhammad Ali Haitham on June 16, 1969, but the latter, with his ties to the tribes and the army, reassembled the leftist forces that had been dispersed by President Qahtan al-Shaabi, and they were able to arrest him and place him under house arrest on June 22 of the same year. A presidential committee was formed from Five people: Salem Rabie Ali, who became president, Muhammad Saleh Al-Awlaki, Ali Antar, Abdel Fattah Ismail, and Muhammad Ali Haitham, who became prime minister. This group took an extreme leftist line, declaring its support for the Palestinians and the Dhofar Revolution, and strengthening its relationship with the Soviet Union. West Germany severed its relationship with the state due to its recognition of East Germany, and the United States also severed its relationship in October 1969. The new powers issued a new constitution, nationalized foreign banks and insurance companies, and changed the name of the country. The state was transferred to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in line with the Marxist-Leninist approach they followed. A centrally planned economy was established. The port of Aden was the largest source of national income for the Republic of South Yemen, but the closure of the Suez Canal by Israel - when it struck a ship inside Egyptian territorial waters - reduced commercial activities in the port.

Salem Rabie Ali wanted to adopt a practical approach, so he communicated with the President of North Yemen, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, and he wanted normal relations with Western countries. During his reign, relations between South Yemen and Saudi Arabia were established in 1976. President Salmin, as he is known, coveted more Soviet support, so the contract with Saudi Arabia worried him. The Soviets pushed them to increase aid, but relations with Saudi Arabia became strained again in 1977 following the assassination of North Yemeni President Ibrahim al-Hamdi. It is believed that Salem Rabie Ali orchestrated the assassination of Ahmed Hussein al-Ghashmi in revenge for Ibrahim al-Hamdi. Salem Rabie Ali was subjected to a quick trial that ended with his execution and Abdel Fattah Ismail assuming the presidency of South Yemen. Relations with North Yemen became tense, due to Fattah’s support for the factions opposing Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was more fanatical than his predecessors. Relations with the Soviet Union became active in an unprecedented way, so the Front War broke out in 1978, in which the Soviet Union and the United States intervened. Ali Nasser Muhammad was able to force Abd al-Fattah Ismail al-Jawfi to resign for “health reasons,” and Ismail was exiled to Moscow less than two years after he assumed the presidency. Despite the approach of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen and its removal of tribal aspects, the tribe remained alive among politicians and the public despite the exposure of its sheikhs. Tribes from their authorities. Tribal and regional favoritism and nepotism remained in southern Yemen, as political forces called on their tribal and regional affiliations during crises.

By January 1986, Aden was torn apart by the rivalry of two factions in the ruling Socialist Party, when President Ali Nasser Muhammad's guards launched a surprise attack on the political party's office in Aden on January 13, 1986. This was the beginning of the 1986 civil war in South Yemen. The basis of the war was regional. Ali Nasser Muhammad was from Abyan Governorate, while most of those killed in the political party office were from Al-Dhalea and Lahj. Military brigades from those areas bombed Aden from land and sea, forcing Ali Nasser Muhammad to flee and hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers to flee to northern Yemen, including Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. This was followed by systematic killings and liquidations against the people of Abyan Governorate, on charges that they were collaborating with Ali Nasser Muhammad. Nearly ten thousand people were killed and thousands migrated towards North Yemen, most of whom were from Abyan and Shabwa.

With the unification of northern and southern Yemen in 1990, Aden was no longer a national capital but remained the capital of Aden Governorate which covered an area similar to that of the Aden Colony.

On 29 December 1992, Al Qaeda conducted its first known terrorist attack in Aden, bombing the Gold Mohur Hotel, where US servicemen were known to have been staying en route to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. A Yemeni and an Austrian tourist died in the attack. That war marked the end of the state of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Haider Abu Bakr Al-Attas assumed the presidency until May 22, 1990, the unity of South Yemen with North Yemen, and the establishment of the Republic of Yemen. At that time, Ali Salem Al-Baidh was considered Ali Abdullah Saleh's deputy, and Haider Abu Bakr Al-Attas was considered prime minister, and after the 1993 elections. Conflicts began within the ruling coalition, and Vice President Ali Salem Al-Beidh retreated to Aden in August 1993. The general security situation in the country deteriorated, and the complete integration of the two armies failed. The southern forces, which were transferred to Amran, clashed with the northern forces there, and the forces of the northern giants, which were transferred to Amran, clashed. Abyan with the southern forces, and the political parties signed the 1994 Covenant and Agreement, in the Jordanian capital, on February 20, 1994, in an attempt to end the crisis, and successive events led to the outbreak of the Summer 1994 civil war, and the southern military leaders who fled after the events of 1986 joined the ranks of the forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and supported the Unity Army in the war against their former comrades in 1994 in the war against the separatists. At the forefront of these emerged a group of the brightest officers, such as President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who became Minister of Defense at the time, the former Chief of Staff, Major General Abdullah Aliwa, and Major General Salem Qatan, who was assassinated by a Al-Qaeda gunman. After the war, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi was appointed Vice President of the Republic, and remained in office. He held his position until 2012, when he was elected president of the country.

Members of al Qaeda attempted to bomb the US guided-missile destroyer The Sullivans at the port of Aden as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. The boat that had the explosives in it sank, forcing the planned attack to be aborted.

The bombing attack on destroyer USS Cole took place in Aden on 12 October 2000.

In 2007 growing dissatisfaction with unification led to the formation of the secessionist South Yemen Movement. According to The New York Times, the Movement's mainly underground leadership includes socialists, Islamists and individuals desiring a return to the perceived benefits of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Temporary capital and civil war
Aden remained in a state of political stagnation for 25 years until President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi took refuge there and carried out his work from the Republican Palace in Aden. Hadi declared Aden the temporary capital on March 7, 2015, instead of Sana’a, which he described as occupied by the Houthis. This was after the Houthis took control of Sanaa on September 21, 2015, and imposed a siege on the Republican Palace and the home of President Hadi on January 20. Hadi submitted his resignation on January 22 to Parliament, which did not hold a session to accept or reject the resignation, and Hadi remained under house arrest imposed by the Houthis. Until he was able to leave for Aden on February 21, 2015, he retracted his resignation, and announced a statement in which he said, “All decisions taken since September 21 are invalid and have no legitimacy.”

President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi fled to Aden, his hometown, in February 2015 after being deposed in the coup d'état that many consider to be the start of the Yemeni civil war. Others consider that the civil war began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sana'a, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government.

Hadi declared in Aden that he was still Yemen's legitimate president and called on state institutions and loyal officials to relocate to Aden. In a televised speech on 21 March 2015, he declared Aden to be Yemen's "economic and temporary capital" while Sana'a is controlled by the Houthis.

Aden was hit by violence in the aftermath of the coup d'état, with forces loyal to Hadi clashing with those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in a battle for Aden International Airport on 19 March 2015. After the airport battle, the entire city became a battleground for the Battle of Aden, which left large parts of the city in ruins and has killed at least 198 people since 25 March 2015.

Some Arab and foreign embassies were transferred to Aden, and Defense Minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi was able to leave Sanaa for Aden and met with President Hadi. On March 4, 2016, unidentified gunmen stormed the Mother Teresa House in the city and killed sixteen people, including four nuns. A number of the old city's churches have also been destroyed by Islamic extremists since mid-2015.

On 14 July 2015, the Saudi Arabian Army launched an offensive to win control of the city. Within three days, the city was cleared of Houthi rebels, ending the Battle of Aden with a coalition victory.

Beginning on 28 January 2018, separatists loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized control of the Yemeni government headquarters in Aden in a coup d'état against the Hadi-led government.

The next day, President of the STC Aidarus al-Zoubaidi announced a state of emergency in Aden and that "the STC has begun the process of overthrowing Hadi's rule over the South".

On 1 August 2019, General Munir Al Yafi the serving commander of the STC was killed in a Houthi-missile strike alongside dozens of Yemeni soldiers in a military camp in western Aden. Later that month, the STC took control of Aden, and in April 2020 they declared self-rule.

On 30 December 2020, the undersecretary of labour and deputy minister of public works were killed along with between 20 and 30 others at the Aden airport while they conducted an international press briefing about their new arrangements with the STC, which includes the partition of forces inside Aden, as they returned from hiding in the Saudi capital. Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, his ministers and his entourage were conducted to safety under the barrage of hostile fire.

Main sites

Aden has a number of historical and natural sites of interest to visitors. These include:
 * The historical British churches, one of which lies empty and semi-derelict in 2019.
 * The Zoroastrian Temple
 * The Cisterns of Tawila—an ancient water-catchment system located in the sub-centre of Crater
 * Sira Fort
 * The Aden Minaret
 * Little Ben, a miniature Big Ben Clock Tower overlooking Steamer Point. Built during the colonial period, this was restored in 2012 after 3 decades of neglect since the British withdrawal of 1967.
 * The Landing Pier at Steamer Point is a 19th-century building used by visiting dignitaries during the colonial period, most notably Queen Elizabeth during her 1954 visit to the colony. This building was hit by an airstrike in 2015 and is currently in the process of being restored in 2019.
 * The Crescent Hotel which contained a number of artifacts relating to the Royal Visit of 1954 and which currently remains derelict as a result of a recent airstrike.
 * The Palace of the Sultanate of Lahej/National Museum—The National Museum was founded in 1966 and is located in what used to be the Palace of the Sultanate of Lehej. Northern forces robbed it during the 1994 Civil War, but its collection of pieces remains one of the biggest in Yemen.
 * The Aden Military Museum which features a painting depicting the 20 June 1967 ambush by Arab Police Barracks on a British Army unit when a number of the 22 soldiers killed that day were driving in 2 Landrovers on Queen Arwa Road, Crater.
 * The Rimbaud House, which opened in 1991, is the two-story house of French poet Arthur Rimbaud who lived in Aden from 1880 to 1891. Rimbaud moved to Aden on his way to Ethiopia in an attempt for a new life. As of the late 1990s, the first floor of the house belonged to the French Consulate, a cultural centre and a library. The house is located in al-Tawahi—the European Quarter of Aden—and is politically and culturally debated for its French nature in an area previously colonized by Britain.
 * The fortifications of Jebal Hadid and Jebal Shamsan
 * The beaches of Aden and Little Aden—Some of the popular beaches in Aden consist of Lover's Bay Beach, Elephant Beach and Gold Beach. The popular beach in Little Aden is called Blue Beach. Some beaches are private and some are public, which is subject to change over time due to the changing resort industry. According to the Wall Street Journal, kidnappings on the beaches and the threat of Al Qaeda has caused problems for the resort industry in Aden, which used to be popular among locals and Westerners.
 * Al-Aidaroos Mosque
 * Main Pass – now called Al-Aqba Road is the only road into Aden through Crater. Originally an Arched Upper bridge known as Main Gate, it overlooked Aden city and was built during the Ottoman Empire. A painted crest of the 24th British army battalion is still visible on the brickwork adjacent to the Gate site and is believed to be the only remaining army Crest from colonial rule still visible in Aden. In March 1963 the bridge was removed by a British Army controlled explosion to widen the 2 lane roadway to the present 4 lane highway and the only reminder of this bridge is a quarter scale replica built at the end of the Al-Aqba road intersection known as the AdenGate Model roundabout.

Economy and transportation
The industrial activity in Aden is represented by a group of factories and production units, the forefront of which is the oil refinery. The oil refinery in Aden is considered one of the first refineries to be established in the region, and began operating in 1954 AD. The Aden Refineries Company has facilities such as an oil tanker port, a network of storage tanks, and a center to supply ships with fuel.

Historically, Aden was a station for importing goods from the African coast and from Europe, the United States, and India. As of 1920, Aden was a major commercial center for trade in the Arabian Peninsula, and the port exported small quantities of local products to most Arab ports. Aden provided coal and salt to passing ships, and the port was a stopping point for ships when they entered Bab al-Mandab.

Transport
Historically, the port of Aden was the main transport port in the region. Passenger ships land in Al-Tawahi District, and the city is served by Aden International Airport, which is about 10 kilometers (6 mi) from the city. The airport is the main headquarters of Al-Saeeda Airlines and its operations center. The airport is considered the second largest airport. In Yemen, after Sana'a International Airport, it is considered the best airport in Yemen in terms of location due to the mountainous nature of Yemen. However, this airport is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in terms of take-off and landing. The establishment of Aden Airport dates back to the year 1927 when the British forces established a military airport in the district. Khor Maksar. After World War II, Britain carried out extensive urban modernization and built Aden International Airport, known today, next to the military airport. Al-Yamda Airlines was the official carrier of South Yemen, before unification, and was based in Aden, before merging with Yemen Airways in 1996. Before the Battle of Aden Airport and the 2015 military intervention in Yemen closed this airport along with other airports in Yemen. On 22 July, Aden International Airport was declared fit for operation again after the Houthi forces were driven from the city, and a Saudi plane carrying aid reportedly became the first plane to land in Aden in four months. The same day, a ship chartered by the World Food Programme carrying fuel docked in Aden's port.

Historically, Aden's harbour has been a major hub of transportation for the region. As of 1920, the harbour was 8 by in size. Passenger ships landed at Steamer Point now called Tawahi.

During the British colonial period motor vehicles drove on the left, as in the United Kingdom. On 2 January 1977, Aden, along with the rest of South Yemen, changed to driving on the right, bringing it into line with neighbouring Arab states.

During the early 20th century, Aden was a prominent export center for coffee grown in the Jubail highlands. And also to export frankincense, wheat, barley, alfalfa and millet, which are produced and exported from Aden. The leaves and stems of clover, millet, and corn produced in Aden were generally used as fodder. Beginning in 1920, Aden was desalinating seawater to produce table salt. Between 1916 and 1917, Aden produced more than 120,000 tons of salt. Aden also produced potash, which was exported to Mumbai.

Economy
Historically, Aden would import goods from the African coast and from Europe, the United States, and India. As of 1920, the British described it as "the chief emporium of Arabian trade, receiving the small quantities of native produce, and supplying the modest wants of the interior and of most of the smaller Arabian ports." At the docks, the city provided coal to passing ships. The only item being produced by the city, as of 1920, was salt. Also, the port was the stop ships had to take when entering the Bab-el-Mandeb; this was how cities like Mecca had received goods by ship. Yemen Airlines, the national airline of South Yemen, had its head office in Aden. On 15 May 1996, Yemen Airlines merged with Yemenia.

During the early 20th century Aden was a notable centre of coffee production. Women processed coffee beans, grown in the Yemen highlands. Frankincense, wheat, barley, alfalfa, and millet was also produced and exported from Aden. The leaves and stalks of the alfalfa, millet and maize produced in Aden were generally used as fodder. As of 1920, Aden was also gathering salt from salt water. An Italian company called Agostino Burgarella Ajola and Company gathered and process the salt under the name Aden Salt Works. There was also a smaller company from India, called Abdullabhoy and Joomabhoy Lalji & Company that owned a salt production firm in Aden. Both companies exported the salt. Between 1916 and 1917, Aden produced over 120,000 tons of salt. Aden has also produced potash, which was generally exported to Mumbai.

Aden produced jollyboats. Charcoal was produced as well, from acacia, and mainly in the interior of the region. Cigarettes were produced by Jewish and Greek populations in Aden. The tobacco used was imported from Egypt.

Since the outbreak of the Yemeni Civil War spread to Aden in 2015, the city has been struck by constant protests over a range of issues, but especially concerning electricity generation. Aden's power grid is composed solely of diesel generators and is thus heavily dependent on imported fuel. The main power plant is al-Hasswa diesel power plant, which in June 2021 had only two turbines out of five running, producing up to 50 megawatts (MW) of power in a region where the deficit hovers around 300 MW. Nawfal al-Mojamal, the plant director, said "In its 35 years of existence, al-Hasswa station never had any kind of maintenance, except in 2016 ... when the two turbines were restored".

Free zone
The free zone, which was opened in 1991, represents Yemen's economic gateway and the meeting point of the continents of Asia and Africa. The free zone gains its strategic importance from the special location of the port of Aden, as it is located directly on the main trade route around the world and from the Middle East to Europe and America, and is distinguished by the possibility of providing transit services. To East Africa, the Red Sea, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf. The free zone represents a storage and distribution area suitable for Africa, the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf.

Geography
Aden is located on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, and is about 363 kilometers away from the capital, Sana’a. It is located between latitudes 47 and 12 north of the equator, and at an altitude of 6 meters above sea level. It is surrounded by Lahj Governorate to the north and east, and the Governorate of Abyan is from the northwest, and Aden has an air port represented by Aden International Airport, and a sea port represented by the port of Aden, and it has land routes from the north linking it to Hajj, Abyan and Taiz.

Landforms
The city of Aden is a coastal city, as it overlooks a large body of water, the Gulf of Aden, which in turn opens to the Indian Ocean. The shape of the city of Aden in the form of two peninsulas helped this factor to make the city of Aden unique in this particularity, which clearly affected the occurrence of the phenomenon of land and sea breezes. Which occurs due to air exchange between land and water during the day and night. Its location on the water surface also affects the daily and annual temperature range. This does not mean that there are no significant differences in temperatures in summer and winter.

The surface of the city of Aden slopes south, and the highlands appear in the southern part of Aden, represented by the highlands of Jabal Shamsan, whose highest peaks exceed 500 metres, and the highlands of Jabal Ihsan and Jabal Al-Muzalqim in Little Aden, which are lower in height than Jabal Shamsan, and the highlands of Aden do not differ from the rest of the highlands of Yemen in terms of In terms of composition, it is of volcanic origin, and although the mountain highlands occupy large areas of the city, their influence is weak and limited on the climate of the city of Aden.

Climate
Aden has a hot desert climate (BWh) in the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system. Although Aden sees next to no precipitation year-round, it is humid throughout the year.

Coasts
Most of the coasts of Aden Governorate along the coastal strip are sandy coasts, and the governorate has coastal beaches, including the Golden Coast in Al-Tawahi District, the coast of Abyan Bakhour Maksar, Al-Ghadeer Beach, and Kud Al-Nimr Beach in Buraiqa.

Offshore islands
There are about 21 islands around the peninsulas of Aden, Aden Lesser, and Ras Amran. They are mostly rocky islands, some of which are surrounded by incomplete coral reefs, and most of them are considered fishing areas. A number of islands have many activities, especially on Al-Ummal Island and Sirah Island.

Wild and domestic animal diversity
Yemen is considered one of the countries rich in bird species in the Middle East due to the availability of many suitable coastal environments that helped attract many migratory birds to wetland sites, coasts and islands. The Aden region (Khor Maksar - Al-Haswah) was registered on the list of important areas of the World Bird Organization as a habitat. The last three species that are globally threatened with extinction are: the great eagle, the gull eagle, and the eastern king eagle.

There are dozens of bird species recorded in the wetlands of Aden and the Caltex swamp area, which are rich in a wide variety of endemic and migratory birds, including birds that are present throughout the year. There are many birds in the area, including great flamingos, dwarf flamingos, and rock egrets. And the spoonbill, the hooked tern and the seagull.

Education
There are 95 schools in Aden, including 13 kindergartens, and 82 basic education schools, including 29 schools for boys, 29 schools for girls, and 29 joint schools for boys and girls. There are also 29 secondary schools, including 15 schools for boys and 14 schools for girls, all of which are in a double shift system. Until 2004, the number of male students reached In basic education, there were 57,941 students and 48,081 female students, with a total of 104,622 students. In secondary education, the number of male students reached 11,029 students, and 9,643 female students.

As for vocational, technical and vocational education centers and institutes, their number is 13, with 2,214 students enrolled, including 453 teachers. The health institutes have one institute, with 864 students enrolled, including 147 teachers, according to 2010 statistics. As for higher education, there is one government university in Aden, which is the University of Aden, which has 9 colleges. More than 29 thousand students are enrolled, according to 2010 statistics.

Health
There are 15 hospitals in the economic capital, Aden, including 5 public government hospitals, 6 belonging to the private sector, and 37 health centers. There are 34 facilities in the city that provide maternity and childhood services, and the number of specialized workforce in health facilities is 2,825 specialists.

Endemic areas
In June 2015, the International Red Cross team present in conflict areas in Yemen during the events of the Yemeni civil war announced that the cities of Crater, Al-Mualla, Khor Maksar and Al-Tawahi in the Aden Governorate in the south of the country were areas affected by “dengue fever.” The health authorities in Aden said that this fever had spread remarkably and widely. Since the beginning of May, health services have deteriorated and infrastructure facilities, such as electricity, water, and sanitation, have been damaged as a result of the ongoing fighting in the city for months.

Mail
Aden has known mail since June 15, 1839, that is, a year after the British occupation, although the official post office was not inaugurated until 1857. Postage stamps of both Britain and India were used in Aden until it became called the Aden Colony on April 1, 1937, although the stamps of this stage It bears no distinctive sign, but the use of the number 124 as a postal code is attributed to Aden as part of the Indian postal numerical system.

Then, when it became a colony in 1937, it had sets of postage stamps containing pictures and the name Aden printed on them. In 1939, a new postage set was issued containing a picture of King George VI, but the Sultans of Hadhramaut - who were under the umbrella of the Aden Protectorate - controlled Britain has had it since the 1880s - they refused to do so, and so Britain issued a separate postal set in 1942, but this time with the inclusion of a phrase and pictures expressing the Kathiri Sultanate in Sayun and the Qu’aiti Sultanate in Shihr and Mukalla, in addition to pictures of the sultans.

Journalism
The weekly Al-Amal newspaper was founded in 1957 in Aden. Its slogan was (Freedom, Bread, and Peace). The British authorities allowed only 1,500 copies to be printed weekly, and the newspaper was banned shortly after.

In 1958, Al-Ayyam newspaper was established in Aden, as an independent daily newspaper in the Arabic language, during the British occupation. The first issue was published on July 30, 1958, and its founder and editor-in-chief was Brigadier General Muhammad Ali Bashraheel. It stopped publishing after independence during the era of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, and then resumed publication. After achieving Yemeni unity, the first issue of the second edition was on November 7, 1990 after a hiatus that lasted more than 23 years. In 1998, Al-Ayyam was the first newspaper in Yemen that the government prosecuted under a criminal law. Other cases followed until it became public by the end of the year. 2008, responsible for 73% of the total number of cases filed by the Ministry of Information and the Yemeni government against the press in Yemen. When the protests and clashes intensified in Aden in April 2009, “Al-Ayyam covered the events extensively, and pictures of blood and injuries were on the cover of the newspaper for days.” President Ali Abdullah Saleh sent delegations to the newspaper, asking them to reduce the severity of their coverage, and to stop using pictures of the injured and bleeding blood. On May 12, 2009, security forces launched an attack on the headquarters of Al-Ayyam newspaper in Aden.

Radio and television
Radio Aden was established on August 17, 1954 under the name “Aden Radio Station.” It is currently broadcast in two periods, morning and evening. The British occupation opened the Aden Channel on September 11, 1964, following the revolution of October 14, 1963. Television transmission was limited to covering populated neighborhoods in the city of Aden, especially where soldiers and families of the British forces were present. In January 1979, the television headquarters moved to the “Radio and Television Building” in Tawahi. Which was prepared, and at that time the broadcast was in black and white, and in March 1981 the gradual transition to color broadcasting began, and in June 1981 the channel began broadcasting via satellite. After the Yemeni unification on May 22, 1990, Aden Channel was the second official channel of Yemeni TV.

Dialects
The entry of the Yemenis into Islam contributed to their abandoning their ancient pen and replacing it with the late Nabataean alphabet in which the Qur’an was written. Today, Yemenis speak Arabic in the Yemeni dialect, which is a developed dialect and closely linked to the ancient language. It has three dialects with branches: the Sana’i dialect, the Hadrami dialect, and the Ta’izi-Adeni dialect, in addition to the Bedouin dialect of the residents of Ma’rib. Al-Jawf, Shabwa, and Badia Hadhramaut, and each of these dialects has characteristics and features.

Music and poetry
Adenian art or Adeniyat is an art of Arabic music. Among the ancient artists of Aden are Iskander Thabet Saleh and Muhammad Murshid Naji, and among the poets are Abdul Rahman Ibrahim Muhammad, Ahmed Ghaleb Muhammad Al-Jabri, Abdullah Abdul Karim Muhammad, Ali Abdullah Jaafar Aman, Farid Muhammad Barakat, Lotfi Jaafar Aman, and Mohsen Ali Brik.

“Adeni music” played a major role in Aden society, and artists in the Aden dialect were called “al-Mutariba,” meaning people of music. Adeni music began in 1920 when the army of the Aden Protectorate was formed, and after it the National Guard, where there were teams for those forces and those teams participated On special occasions and weddings.

Pre-independence
The first beginning of Adenian sports dates back to the year 1902 AD, when the Adeni Tennis Club was established, with its headquarters in the Al-Qatee’ neighborhood in Crater, and Youssef Muhammad Khan founded the “Recreational Club United” in the city of Crater, and it was known as the Yousef Khan Stadium. The city of Aden is considered the first city in which sports were practiced in the Arabian Peninsula, and the first private club in Aden was founded in 1905 under the name “Al-Ittihad Al-Muhammadi Club,” as the first sports club in Yemen and the Arab world. He was fighting the occupation army divisions and the fleet divisions coming and passing to the port of Aden.

In 1924, the “Al-Husseini Sports Club” was founded in Crater, and a third club appeared in Tawahi under the name “Al-Bamboot Club” and Sheikh Othman. The 1930s witnessed the emergence of a number of clubs. In 1933 AD, the “Nujoom Al-Layl Club”, Al-Aidrousi Club, and Nujoom Al-Sabah Club appeared in Crater, and in Tawahi, the “Al-Ittihad Al-Islami Club” (Al-Mawlada) appeared.

Until that year, football matches were played in a friendly manner between the teams of the Crater, Al-Tawahi, and Sheikh Othman regions, as there were no federations regulating sports activity. In 1934 AD, the occupation authority announced the establishment of a sports association called the “Adeniya Sports Association,” after the increasing number of local clubs. Its members were appointed by the Governor-General of Aden, and all of its members were English, headed by the English Governor of Aden, “Bernard Reilly,” as sponsor. The association's board of directors consists of Hikam Bottom as president, the Indian Rosario as secretary, and two other members.

This association began holding the first club tournament, which was the “Rosario Cup Championship.” Six clubs participated in the tournament, three from Crater (Al-Ittihad Al-Mohammadi, Al-Husseini, and Nojoom Al-Layl), from Al-Tawahi (Al-Mawalda, and Al-Bamiot), and from Sheikh Othman, Sheikh Othman Club, which includes Players from various small teams in the Sheikh Othman area, and Al-Ittihad Al-Mohammadi Club won this championship.

Among the most important tournaments held in Aden before independence were the Rosario Cup, the Riley Cup, the Somali Bassem Al-Nar Cup, the Aramco Cup, and the Kik Muncherji Championship.

Post-independence
After independence, the “Football Federation” was established on January 18, 1968, on the ruins of the “Adeniya Sports Association.” The Federation took a decision regarding the Adeniya clubs, which had numbered about 64 sports clubs, reducing and merging the clubs in Aden and Lahj to only 16 clubs, and the clubs were forced to join or unite with large teams. In February 1968, several sports clubs were abolished, leaving only 12 clubs remaining. In December 1968, Al-Islah Club and Al-Shaab Club were merged into one club under the name of the latter in Al-Tawahi. In 1969, the Al-Ittihad Al-Muhammadi Club and Al-Tadamon Club were united in Crater, under the name Al-Tadamon Al-Muhammadi Club.

In the “First General Sports Conference” in 1973, the clubs were merged and reduced again, so that their number became only 7 clubs: Al-Ahrar Club, Al-Ahly Club, Shamsan Club, Al-Shaab Club, Al-Hilal Club, United Youth Club, and Aden Tennis Club. On July 18, 1975, the stage of forming urban clubs, and the beginning of the stage of politicization of the clubs in favor of the National Liberation Front, took place. It was decided to change their names and reduce them to become 5 clubs: Al-Tilal Club, Shamsan Club, Al-Minaa Club, Al-Wahda Club, and Al-Shoula Club.

On July 18, 1975, the “Al-Tilal Sports Club” appeared, headed by Yassin Saeed Noman, as a new name for the “Al-Ittihad Al-Muhammadi Club,” which was founded in 1905, and in 1976 the “Yemeni Football Federation” appeared. Al-Tilal Club participated in the “September 26 Cup Competition” in 1980, as the first football competition in which it participated with teams from northern and southern Yemen, such as the national team of Ibb Governorate, Taiz Governorate, Hadhramaut Governorate, Lahj and Hodeidah, at the Shaheed Al-Dharafi Stadium in Sana’a, and Al-Hilal was crowned champion of the September 26 Cup, after victory over Hodeidah national team by five clean goals.

Football is the most popular sport in Aden. There are 9 stadiums in Aden, including the May 22 International Stadium, and 10 sports clubs. In November 2010, Aden hosted the 2010 Arabian Gulf Football Cup.

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title: Aden


text:
United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was a United Nations peacekeeping mission formed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1035 on 21 December 1995. It completed its mandate on 31 December 2002, when it was succeeded by the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From the UNMIBH website:
 * UNMIBH’s mandate is to contribute to the establishment of the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina by assisting in reforming and restructuring the local police, assessing the functioning of the existing judicial system, and monitoring and auditing the performance of the police and others involved in the maintenance of law and order.

UNMIBH was headed by a Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The SRSG exercised authority over the UN’s IPTF Police Commissioner and coordinated other United Nations activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main components of UNMIBH were: IPTF (International Police Task Force); the Criminal Justice Advisory Unit; a Civil Affairs Unit; and a Human Rights Office. The Mission had a nation-wide presence with regional headquarters in Banja Luka, Bihac, Doboj, Mostar, Sarajevo, Tuzla and a district headquarters in Brcko.

From 2001 through 2003, at the request of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jacques Paul Klein served as his Special Representative and Coordinator of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the rank of Under-Secretary-General. As Chief of Mission, he had overall management authority and day-to-day management responsibility of 2,700 international police officers from 48 different countries with a budget of $168.2 million. UNMIBH restructured and downsized a 44,000 pre-war police force to approximately 16,000 trained personnel. The Mission recruited and trained the first BiH police contingent that was deployed to the United Nations Mission in East Timor and the first group of Bosnian United Nations military observers. He focused on combating international terrorism, illegal migration and organized crime and within eighteen months was able to cut the number of illegal persons entering BiH, through its three airports, from 25,000 to 300 per year.

In 2003 Officer Kathryn Bolkovac discovered a ring of human trafficking involving UN officers, after two young girls appeared after being sold and abused in illegal brothels. Dozens of girls raised 'eerily similar' accounts of abuse: including emigrating to take a job as a waitress or in domestic service, including at the insistence of their own families – but were diverted into human trafficking. They were trafficked to different locations, forcibly stripped and sold to individuals who beat and raped them in brothels in Bosnia.

Bolkovac stated accusations that mission head Klein dismissed several high-profile cases that were escalated to his level after she forwarded a number to the internal affairs unit. Bolkovac's story was adapted into the film "The Whistleblower". A UN audit, released by the US government in 2008, into Klein's actions in both Bosnia and Liberia accused him of a significant role in a number of scandals, though specifically clearing him of corruption. In 2010, a UN review into the audit stated the investigation was inadequate and allegations lacked merit, including a complete failure to notify Klein of the allegations and allow him a chance to respond to them.