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Yemen: Corruption and anti-corruption

Yemen's ongoing conflict has transformed into an economic battle, with various factions fighting over crucial resources, such as aid flows and control over state resources. The war economy has intensified existing corruption challenges and created avenues for illicit wealth accumulation for new powerbrokers and previously less powerful networks. However, this takeover of the state has not fundamentally changed the nature of the systematic corruption that has plagued Yemen long before 2014.

5 December 2023
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Yemen: Corruption and anti-corruption

Main points

  • Conflict and corruption in Yemen have reinforced each other.
  • The war economy has led to a more fragmented economic landscape and the expansion of opportunities for gatekeepers to extract wealth through corrupt means and in the illicit economy. In other areas it has fueled pre-existing corruption challenges.
  • While the armed conflict in Yemen may have disrupted some corrupt networks, it should not be assumed that it has fundamentally changed the preexisting nature of state capture and corruption in the country.
  • While the legal framework has some key strengths, there is no evidence that the regulatory system has the capacity to adequately hold actors accountable for acts of corruption.

Cite this publication


Bak, M.; (2023) Yemen: Corruption and anti-corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2024:1)

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Mathias Bak

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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