In a country where American drone strikes have killed hundreds of civilians and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula roams free in many parts, it is ironic that on a recent visit to the governate of Al Dhalea in Yemen's south that my American companion was often more welcome than I — for my own safety, I repeatedly had to hide the fact that I was from Yemen's north. Al Dhalea can effectively be considered the capital of the southern secessionist movement, and last month there we heard of northerners being attacked and beaten, their stores being burned or forced to close and them fleeing for their lives. Blind hate for the north was a near-palpable, collective social psychosis. Yemen's north and south have long held mutual animosities — helped in no small part by the 1994 civil war which the north won — but in recent months anti-northern sentiments
