South Yemeni crisis

Belligerentsal-Zomrah faction of the Yemeni Socialist Partyal-Toghmah faction of the Yemeni Socialist PartyCommanders and leadersAli Nasir Muhammad
PresidentUnits involvedCasualties and losses 4,000 – 6,000 dead
60,000 refugees

The South Yemeni crisis, colloquially referred to in Yemen as the events of '86, was a failed coup d'etat and brief civil war 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 South Yemen. 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.