Risk management report: Yemen

POLITICS: Yemen is on the verge of collapse. After 33 years of rule, president Ali Abdullah Saleh relinquished power in February 2012, and the nation entered a transitional period, intended to be two years long and to steer Yemen towards democracy and stability. But the transition has been beset with problems. Saleh’s successor, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, inherited a mess of competing and often violent factions and has been unable to harness them: secessionists in the south continue to resist Sanaa’s rule, a powerful jihadist movement has embedded itself in many parts of the country, remnants of the old guard refuse to relinquish power and, in September 2014, the northern Houthi movement took over the capital Sanaa, tipping the balance of power in its favour.