Saada (Arabic: ‏صعدة‎‎ Ṣa'da) is a governorate located in the north of Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia. As of February 2004, the province had a population of 695,033 inhabitants, around 3.67% of the total population of Yemen and have an area of 11,375 square kilometers.. It is one of the most inaccessible areas of Yemen and ranks among the poorest in the country. The provincial capital is Sa`dah, the largest city in the province.

Saada is one of the few regions of Yemen inhabited by a large majority of Zaydis, a Muslim religious minority close to Shi'a Islam (from which they separated at the end of the 8th century after a dispute about the identity of the fifth Shi'a Imam). It is currently the center of an insurgency pitting Zaydi rebels against the government.

Since June 2004, violent conflict has taken place in Saada, killing hundreds and causing displacement of the population. The conflict has its roots in an insurgency against the government of Yemen which was initiated by a rebel Imam. A ceasefire, brokered in June 2007, was followed by a peace agreement in February 2008. By April 2008, however, the peace process was in jeopardy as each side of the conflict accused the other of failing to implement aspects of the peace agreement. Analysts suggest that renewed conflict will have an impact on the humanitarian situation in the region. In May 2008, it was estimated that there were 77,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Saada as a result of the conflict.

Sa`dah (Arabic: صعدة‎ ‏‎‎Ṣa'da) is the capital city of Saada Governorate in north-western Yemen. It is located at 16°56′9″N 43°45′52″E / 16.93583°N 43.76444°E / 16.93583; 43.76444Coordinates: 16°56′9″N 43°45′52″E / 16.93583°N 43.76444°E / 16.93583; 43.76444, at an elevation of about 1,800 meters. Its population in 2004 was estimated at 51,870. It was formerly identified with Karna, the kingdom of the ancient kingdom of Ma'in, which is now known to be identical to the ancient Qarnawu near the modern Ma'in in Al Jawf Governorate.

Ali Abdullah Saleh (Arabic: علي عبدالله صالح‎; born 21 March 1942) is a Yemeni politician who was President of Yemen from 1990 to 2012. Saleh previously served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from 1978 until 1990; upon the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen in 1990, he became President of Yemen.

After more than 33 years in power, Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement in November 2011, paving the way for his vice president to become acting president until February 21, 2012; at that point the vice president would be elected to the presidency. On January 22, 2012, the Yemeni parliament passed a law that granted Saleh immunity from being prosecuted and he left Yemen for treatment in the United States. Saleh stepped down and formally ceded power to his deputy Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi at the Presidential Palace on 27 February 2012.

Saleh was born in the town of Bait el-Ahmar, in the Al-Ahmar family of the small Sanhan tribe, a tribe whose territories lie some 20 kilometers southeast of the capital Sana'a (the Al-Ahmar family of Sanhan is often falsely confounded with the same-named ruling family of the Hashid tribal confederacy, a confederacy to which the Sanhan tribe belongs). Saleh is a Zaydi Shia Muslim. He is a "non-Hashimi" Zaydi (not a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's grandfather), and would not have been eligible to rule under the Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen that ruled the country until 1962.