estimated to have been in excess of 380
metric tons
opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation continued to
increase in 2007, with a potential opium production of 8,400 metric
tons, reaching the highest levels recorded since estimates began in
mid-1980s; Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting
for 95% of the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 9% of
global opium - saw marginal increases in production; Latin America
produced 1% of global opium, but most was refined into heroin
destined for the US market; if all potential opium was processed
into pure heroin, the potential global production would be 1,000
metric tons of heroin in 2007

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Yemen

Introduction
Yemen

Background:

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 in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994
was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a
delimitation of their border.

Geography
Yemen

Location:

Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea,
between Oman and Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:

15 00 N, 48 00 E

Map references:

Middle East

Area:

total: 527,970 sq km
land: 527,970 sq km
water: 0 sq km
note: includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR
or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of
Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen)

Area - comparative:

slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

Land boundaries:

total: 1,746 km
border countries: Oman 288 km, Saudi Arabia 1,458 km

Coastline:

1,906 km

Maritime claims:

territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:

mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western
mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordi