Was the Arab Spring Worth It?

The people of the Middle East have paid a steep price to overthrow their dictators.

BY HUSSEIN IBISH | JULY/AUGUST 2012

YEMEN

2011 rank: 13 | 2012: 8

Deaths: Yemen's government recently estimated that 2,000 people were killed in the uprising leading to Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation. Amnesty International's estimate of 200 people killed during the protests is far smaller.

Economic costs: Before the crisis, the United Nations projected Yemen's economy would grow 3.4 percent in 2011, but instead it has "shrunk substantially," with inflation averaging about 20 percent. And it will get worse: The IMF expects Yemen's GDP to decrease another 0.5 percent in 2012.

Humanitarian crisis: Nearly half a million Yemenis have been displaced from their homes in recent years. Almost 1 million Yemeni children under age 5 face acute malnutrition, with 250,000 at risk of dying. An estimated 55 percent of Yemenis live below the poverty line on less than $2 per day, with 10 million "food insecure" and 5 million of those "severely food insecure." Youth unemployment is estimated to be more than 50 percent.

 

Hussein Ibish is senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.