Zinjibar

Zinjibar is a port and coastal town in south-central Yemen, the capital of Zinjibar District and of the Abyan Governorate. It lies beside the Wadi Bana in the Abyan Delta. From 1962 to 1967 it served as the administrative capital of the Fadhli Sultanate, although the royal residence stayed at Shuqrah. The 2004 census counted 19,879 inhabitants. Before the recent conflicts the economy rested on fishing, agriculture, crafts and the port, and the fertile land around the town was once called the food basket of Yemen. The name comes from the Persian compound Zang-bar, meaning coast of the dark-skinned, the same root as Zanzibar. The town was destroyed in 1163 and later rebuilt, was seized by the National Liberation Front in 1967, and was taken by Islamist militants in 2011 and retaken by the army in 2012, and it changed hands again in the fighting of 2015 and 2016.