South Yemen civil war | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Arab Cold War | |||||||
![]() map of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) in red | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() |
![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Mobilized tribal militias |
Mobilized tribal militias | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
4,000 – 6,000 dead[1] 60,000 refugees |
The South Yemen civil war, colloquially referred to as the events of '86 or the events of January 13, or more simply as the events, was a failed coup d'etat and armed conflict which took place on January 13, 1986, in South Yemen. The civil war developed as a result of ideological differences, and later tribal tensions, between two factions of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), centred on Abdul Fattah Ismail's faction, at-Toghmah, and Ali Nasir Muhammad's faction, az-Zomrah, for the leadership of the YSP and the PDRY. The conflict quickly escalated into a costly civil war that lasted eleven days and resulted in thousands of casualties. Additionally, the conflict resulted in the demise of much of the Yemeni Socialist Party's most experienced socialist leadership cadre, contributing to a much weaker government and the country's eventual unification with North Yemen in 1990.