Summary

On December 31, 2014, Mokhtar was in Ibb when a suicide bomber killed 49 civilians. A week later, when Mokhtar was in Sana’a, a bombing killed 38 civilians. The attacks appeared to have been carried out by Houthi rebels. In mid-January, 2015, the Houthis took over the Yemeni government. The U.S. embassy in Yemen closed, and it urged all U.S. citizens to leave Yemen. Meanwhile, Mokhtar’s investors were refusing to give him money with which to buy coffee, as there was no apparent way to export among the turmoil. Mokhtar realized that, even if the U.S. embassy were open, it would not help; the U.S. had wrongfully revoked the passports of American citizens of Yemeni descent, such as a man named Mosed Shaye Omar. The U.S. embassy wrongfully revoked Mosed’s passport while he was in Yemen. In Chapter 29, on March 26, the...