SANA, Yemen, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Yemen will become a six-region federation as part of its political transformation, its state-run news agency reported Monday.
Parties were divided on creating two regions or six, but a committee headed by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi gave final approval for a "federal state of six regions," the news agency Saba reported, adding the decision will be inserted in Yemen's new constitution, to be voted on in 2015.
The six regions include Azal, Saba, Janad and Tahama in the north, and Aden and Hadramawt in the south.
The southern regions formed an independent state in 1967 until it was unified with the north in 1990, and a 1994 secession attempt led to a brief but bloody civil war that ended in reunification.
The panel reorganizing the government was stipulated in a United Nations plan that ended a year of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 after 33 years in power, the news agency Middle East Online said.
