YCMES Statement on Safety & Security

April 8, 2008

Whenever a student is deciding on a location to study abroad, it is important to evaluate the details of the program and country, including security. Since we do cater our programs to foreigners, especially Westerners, the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies understands the need to address safety in Yemen for incoming students. We also take the necessary measures to do all we can in our power to ensure safety and security for our students in Yemen.  Over the last few months, Yemen has seen an escalation in destabilizing events, including some attacks targeted at Western establishments.

The majority of the problems facing Yemen have been related to domestic issues. There is a prolonged war against the al-Houthi rebels going on in the North, tribal conflicts with the government in the Midwest, secession and separatist movements in the South, and civil unrest due to rising food prices, all of which are not directed against foreigners. There is a presence of a branch-organization associated with Al-Qaeda in Yemen, who claimed responsibility for the attacks that targeted the U.S. Embassy in March and a foreign housing complex in April. This is of most concern to a foreigner, though few actual attacks have taken place in Yemen directed at foreigners over the course of the last couple of years, which have also been claimed by this Al-Qaeda group.

The fact that the only news that comes out of Yemen has to deal with these issues reinforces a student's apprehension of studying in Yemen. Most articles about Yemen include the infamous tagline, "Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden." It is unfortunate that Yemen has been receiving such negative press coverage, as the people and land are very charming for an Arabic language learner.

There are two aspects one can look at when evaluating safety and security, crime rates and targeted attacks. In Sana'a, crime rates are very low, and most foreigners feel safer here than they do walking around in their home cities. On the other hand, Westerners do not blend into this homogenous society very well, and the chances that a Western person or establishment would be targeted for violence because of that factor are of course higher than "Western-ness" would be targeted in the West. This seems like an obvious fact, but it is something that we remind students to be conscientious about.

Though many foreigners have continued to feel at ease in this country, there is a heightened tension resulting from recent events that encourages wariness and vigilance. Thus, we frequently check the news in Yemen and advise fewer visits to Western establishments here in Sana'a.  We also carefully monitor the situation for trips outside of the capital.

There has been an elevation of the U.S. State Department Warning to Yemen. The former warning stated citizens should "carefully consider the risks of traveling to Yemen."  As of the end of March, the new warning urges citizens to “defer non-essential travel to Yemen.” More recently (as of today, April 8) the U.S. Dept of State has ordered the mandatory evacuation of all non-emergency embassy staff, which includes Fulbright scholars in the country. While the U.S. Embassy is trying to avoid any possible security incident with its employees, it should be noted that as of today, none of our students have decided to leave Yemen early. This does not mean that we here in Yemen have not increased our vigilance; it just shows that these official decisions also carry a lot of political consideration.

We have taken precautions here at the college, and will continue to do so. We consult with the local embassies regarding security concerns for our students, and receive security updates from the U.S. Embassy and other reliable sources. If any attack does happen, we are notified within minutes to relay this information to staff and students. The president of YCMES is in direct contact with the Minister of Interior, who can assess the security situation based on Yemeni intelligence. He often advises us on where and when it is safe to travel with students (outside of the capital) and what measures, if any, need to be taken for such a trip. We have drafted evacuation strategies, increased the presence of guards, and created a phone tree to alert all people associated with our college of security concerns.  We are also in the process of constructing more secure entrances and installing security cameras.

It should be noted that our school has not experienced a terrorist threat or security issue over the last 20 years, even at times of more heightened security such as the Civil War in 1994, the USS Cole attack in 2000, and the riots when petrol prices rose about 3 years ago. We continue to host many international students annually, and would suspend our program if we thought our students' safety was in direct jeopardy. It would only take one incident involving one of our students to completely destroy our college program, and we are therefore highly concerned about protecting our students.

We are happy to answer any specific student concerns about safety & security. Our first priority students' well-being and want to make sure we answer all of your questions honestly. Please email us at ycmes@ycmes.org or ylc@ycmes.org, and we will get back to you in a timely matter regarding your safety concerns.