A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Yemeni Activist Ibrahim Mothana Dies at 24

Facebook Profile Photo
Yemeni activist Ibrahim Mothana, a founder of the Al-Watan Party and a prominent critic of the US drone program, has died at the age of only 24. An activist in the democratic movement since the 2011 uprising, he was well-known abroad for his good English, giving him an audience, such as this 2012 New York Times op-ed, "How Drones Help Al Qaeda". Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian published the text this year of his testimony prepared (but not delivered as he could not attend) when he was invited to testify before a US Senate Subcommittee looking into the legality of the use of drones: "A young Yemeni writer on the impact and morality of drone-bombing his country."

The cause of death is unclear but a possible heart attack has been mentioned. Appreciations of his work at the Huffington Post Yemen Peace Project website and at Afrah Nasser's blog.

1 comment:

David Mack said...

The two of us met briefly before being interviewed by BBC Arabic TV. Although we disagreed about the U.S. use of drones in Yemen, I found him smart, personable and doubtless more convincing to the audience than I was.