Civil service ministry declares Wednesday a public holiday for October 14 Revolution anniversary
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s Ministry of Civil Service and Insurance declared Wednesday an official public holiday to mark the 63rd anniversary of the October 14 Revolution.
The ministry set out the decision in a circular, a copy of which reached the state news agency Saba. The agency published it on Oct. 12.
The holiday covers all employees of state administrative units, the public and mixed sectors, economic units and the private sector, according to the circular.
The ministry cited Article 3 of Law No. 2 of 2000, which governs official holidays and public observances.
The Ministries of Civil Service and Insurance and of Information extended congratulations to the political leadership and to Yemenis, Saba reported. Both ministries said they prayed the occasion would return to Yemen with goodness, security and stability.
The account rests on the ministry circular as carried by Saba. The state broadcaster Yemen TV republished the agency’s report the same day. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of the circular, and the ministry has not published its full text.
The same ministry issues comparable circulars for the republic’s other national days, including the Sept. 26 anniversary of the 1962 revolution.
October 14 commemorates the start of an armed uprising against British colonial rule in 1963.
The revolt began in the Radfan mountains, north of Aden. President Rashad al-Alimi, in his address on the 62nd anniversary last year, credited the opening action to Rajeh bin Ghalib Labouza, whom he described as a martyr.
British forces fought dissident tribesmen in the Jebel Radfan area of Dhala State at intervals through 1964 and 1965, according to historical accounts of the campaign. Federal authorities alleged at the time that the fighters were armed and supported by republican authorities in the north.
The operations were aimed in part at securing the 90-mile trade route between Dhala and Aden.
From 1965 the National Liberation Front and a rival group, the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen, waged parallel armed campaigns against British rule and against each other.
Britain had sponsored a Federation of South Arabia, which most of the protectorate states and the Aden colony had joined by 1965. Federation rule collapsed two years later as British troops pulled out.
The National Liberation Front prevailed over its rival in 1967 and declared independence on Nov. 30 that year, naming the new state the People’s Republic of South Yemen. It was renamed the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen on Dec. 1, 1970.
A Marxist wing of the front took power in June 1969. Political parties were later merged into the Yemeni Socialist Party.
The two Yemeni states united on May 22, 1990.
Yemeni officials present the October revolt as a continuation of the republican revolution of Sept. 26, 1962, which overthrew the imamate in the north. Al-Alimi made that link explicit in the same speech.
He delivered last year’s anniversary address from Aden on Oct. 13. He called the revolution “a rebirth of our proud nation” and said it “laid the foundation for a modern civil state born from the national movement.”
In that speech he reported a Saudi grant to the state budget, the resumption of International Monetary Fund activity after an eleven-year gap, and the start of salary payments. He also said the southern cause was central to any comprehensive political settlement.
The same address welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and thanked Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Qatar.
Al-Alimi cited the Family Law as an early reform of the revolutionary period and called for a state built on citizenship, equality and the rule of law. He urged the Houthis to lay down their arms and described peaceful protest as a legitimate right.
This year’s anniversary falls during renewed fighting.
Saudi authorities said a Houthi attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed 12 people and wounded about 300 on Oct. 10, in accounts reported by Al Jazeera and CNN. An earlier attack on the airport killed three Saudi nationals. A further strike on Oct. 12 killed one person and injured 11, the authorities said.
Yemen’s cabinet approved a draft law on Oct. 12 designating the Houthis a terrorist organisation. The Houthis reject the government’s account of the war and present their operations as a response to the Saudi-led coalition.
The United Nations migration agency said more than 201,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since September. Taiz governorate recorded the largest share.
The United Nations humanitarian plan published in March put more than 22 million Yemenis in need of assistance. It recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure and more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
The plan counted 5.2 million internally displaced people and sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million of them.
The Ministry of Civil Service and Insurance administers pay and conditions for government employees. Its writ runs in areas held by the internationally recognised government, which is seated in Aden.
Aden has served as the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2015. The Houthis took Sanaa the previous year.
Law No. 2 of 2000 predates the current conflict by more than a decade.
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