I have been to Yemen, traveled by road from Sana'a to Ta'izz and to Al Hudaydah, It's a place I would never ever want to go again, poor doesn't even describe it, all the males wear a curved a dagger like it is a necktie.
I was held up on the road by a gang of youths carrying such automatic weapons as shown in the picture, they were backed up by a tank and were all stoned on the locally grown ghat.
They wanted my passport but I was able to get out of the situation by speaking a little of my very limited Arabic to them.
I could not get back to the airport fast enough for my flight back to Sharjah, even that was a drama, the third engine above the cabin on the ancient Yemen Air 727 misfired and banged all the way home, never again...