Yemen has lost another statesman. Still reeling from the Dec. 28 assassination of prominent opposition figure Jarallah Omar, the country must now deal with the Jan. 12 traffic death of Yahya Mohammed al-Mutawakkil, the deputy secretary general of Yemen's ruling party.
By all accounts, it's a catastrophe for both his family and the people of Yemen.
Al-Mutawakkil, 60, was the third most powerful man in the country.
He was a patriot who struggled for the Yemeni revolution since its beginning and devoted his life for four decades to the cause of Yemen's development and prosperity.
He was known for his noble behavior and high morals and that gave him the love and respect of many.
Al-Mutawakkil was traveling in a convoy from the southern port of Aden to Lahj district, about 185 miles south of the capital Sana'a, when the crash occurred.
Several other people accompanying al-Mutawakkil were also killed, and several others were injured, including Gen. Ezzeddin al-Muathin, a leading member of the ruling General People's Congress.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three people traveling with al-Mutawakkil died. It was unclear what caused the accident. An investigation has been launched to discover its cause.
Born in 1942, al-Mutawakkil graduated from Yemen's military academy in 1962. He served as Interior Minister in several cabinets between 1977 and 1993 and was also Yemen's ambassador to the United States during the early 1980s.
Al-Mutawakkil was survived by his wife, son and daughter.
A group of specialists will go to Lahj District soon to investigate the Jan. 13 accident that took place at 8:30 am on a highway between Bi'r Naser and Fifth Brigade Camp north Aden.
Sources say that the cause of the accident could be either a technical error or excess speed which caused the car to deviate from the main road and roll over several times.
General Al-Mutwakil was on his way to attend a GPC leadership's assembly at Al-Husaiani guest house to talk about elections preparations.
Citizens of that area rushed to aid when the accident took place, but al-Mutwakil was already dead.
The Yemen Times has met a number of people who knew him to find out more about what people are feeling.
Matloop Atef al-Sharafi, the head of board directors in the Saba International for Navigation and Investment Company Limited, says "Yahya was not ordinary man but he was a brave and prominent leader that his name linked with the most crucial achievements in the Yemeni society: that is 26 September Revolution and the Yemeni unification of 1990."
He added "Al-Mutawakkil had a long history of struggling and challenging things, working silently and quietly in different circumstances and conditions and locations for sake of freedom and independence and dignity and prosperity of his nation."Al-Mutawakkil was known a modest person with good-manner. In a visit that president of republic has paid to Hodeidah city in the end of last December, I sat continuously with the late al-Mutawakkil for four hours in which I observed him. Those few hours gave me an opportunity to discover a nobleman who has good spirit full with love for people and country. He was quiet and good at speaking and listening. He amazed you with his logic and spoken word.
Al-Mutawakkil's passing away is really representing a grievous loss for the country. And for the General People Congress, it's a loss of a great national and politician. His passing away represents a big calamity as men like him are rare and no one can replace them. Mercy on the late and condolence for his family and beloved people."
Dr. Hussein al-Eryani, Taiz University Rector, said "No doubt that al-Mutawakkil's passing away in these difficult circumstances represents a great loss for the nation as he was known for his honest stands and his good dealing with cases. He was a listener rather than speaker and if he spoke, he spoke about the love he had for his country."Faisal Saeed Fare'a, the general manager of al-Saeed for Science and Culture Foundation, said "It seems that we are in a time when we lose many of our prominent men, starting with Jarallah Omar and now al-Mutawakkil.
"The fact is that al-Mutawakkil played important roles in Yemen's history, as he always served national causes. He was a link between the political forces, for he had an open future vision for all people. He passed away in a time the country was in dire need of him. With losing him I feel that we lose one of the few farsighted and intellectual persons who have a library of precious books that gave him vision and experiences.
"I met him when he paid a visit to our foundation four days before his sudden and painful departure. He walked around in the foundation and talked intimately, warmly about this project considered it as civilized one pointing to the importance of taking care of our heritage and history. We had future appointment with him, but fate was quicker and snatched him in that painful traffic accident."
Abdu al-Wahab Magaless, Sheik and intellectual, said, "Al-Mutawakkil was a first-class politician as well as a cultured person who was known to have noble morals, and brave and prominent stands that served Yemen since his infancy. His death is a big loss for General Peoples Congress party and for the land of Yemen."

A German court ordered on Tuesday that two Yemeni citizens suspected of links to the al Qaeda network be detained in custody pending an official extradition request by the United States.
German anti-terrorism officials have said the men, arrested last week in a Frankfurt hotel on a U.S. request, are Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Mouayad and Mohammed Moshen Yahya Zayed. U.S. justice authorities say the two are al Qaeda supporters, but have not linked them directly with the September 11 attacks.
The Frankfurt regional court said in a statement Tuesday that the two men would be held pending the delivery of an official extradition request from the United States, which must be received within 60 days.
The court said it would then have to rule again on how long the men should continue to be held and rule on the extradition request itself, although the final say on whether to extradite the men rested with the German government. The court said public hearings were unusual in extradition proceedings.
Yemeni officials have also said they have asked for the two suspects' extradition and would interrogate them as soon as they returned home.
U.S. officials have said Sheikh Mohammed Ali al-Mouayad, a preacher at Al Ihsan Mosque, one of the main mosques in Yemen's capital Sanaa, is a significant fund-raiser for al Qaeda but not a financial official for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Ahmed al-Mouayad, Sheikh Mohammed's son, told Reuters in Sanaa his father had left for Frankfurt with his aide Mohammed Yahya Zayed for medical treatment and denied his father was connected to "any terrorist groups."
Yemeni officials in Sanaa said both men were members of the Islah party. Islah party members denounced their arrest and said they had no connection to al Qaeda.
An extradition request by the United States could cause a legal battle with Germany, as German law does not allow the extradition of suspects if they could face the death penalty in the state to which they are extradited.
In November, Berlin only agreed to cooperate in the U.S. trial of French national Zacarias Moussaoui, charged over the September 11 attacks, after Washington assured Germany their evidence would not be used to obtain the death penalty.
Germany was an important launch pad for the September 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States blamed on al Qaeda. Three of the four pilots lived in the northern port city of Hamburg in the 1990s.
Yemen, the ancestral home of bin Laden, is seen in the West as a haven for Muslim militants, including the al Qaeda network.
Meanwhile, it's been reported that the arrested sheikh Ali al-Mouyad told Yemen's ambassador to Germany - Muhiyyieddin Al-Dhabi - that he was invited to Germany to receive financial aid, according to weekly 26 September.
"Al-Mouyad said that a Yemeni person, whose name was mentioned, told him that an American Muslim named 'Saeed' was willing to provide him with financial assistance to be spent on charity for Yemen. He said that the person said he would only give the money if al-Mouyad would travel either to Germany or the US for this reason," said the newspaper.
Hence al-Mouyad said that he traveled to Germany only for this purpose and indeed met with 'Saeed', who gave him a check notebook two days before his arrest and told him that he can withdraw any amount he needs on a monthly basis. He also noted that the Yemeni person had disappeared following that," added the newspaper.
The Yemeni government has reiterated its demand to hand over the arrested sheikh and his companion to Yemeni authorities according to international law.
At the same time intensified efforts are currently being exerted on the government by many Islah and religious affiliates to pressure the government to bring him back to Yemen.
"We thank the Yemeni government for its initial reaction concerning the arrest of Al-Mouyad in Germany," the preacher of Al-Ihsan mosque said last week.
Several small rallies took place in various areas in Sana'a in support of al-Mouyad and a petition was launched to collect as many signatures from the people as possible and deliver them to the government.

Hundreds of people including representatives of Arab political parties staged a demonstration in in Sanaa on Saturday to protest the potential U.S strike against Baghdad.
The protestors went to the UN office in Sana'a where they expressed their anger.
The demonstrators, estimated at 2,000 people carried banners condemning the US potential military attack against Iraq. Several leaders from the Ba'ath party in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon and the ruling GPC as well as opposition parties in Yemen took part in the protest.
Dozens of women participated as well. The protestors warned that any military operation against Iraq will invite counter attacks against US interests everywhere. A joint statement issued by Arab and Yemeni political parties denounced threats to strike Iraq and said that all Arabs will be obliged to defend the Arab state if war takes place. It warned against the use of the UN Resolution 1441 as a pretext to carry out the attack. It stressed that the military option will be catastrophic.
The statement added that the attack aims to destroy all strong Arab countries, condemning the cooperation with the US by some Arab states.
It called upon the international community for lifting the economic embargo imposed on Iraq and allowing Arab volunteers to take part in defending Baghdad in case of a war.
It demanded the UN to stop US threats and called upon Arab companies and investors to boycott products of attacking countries. It also demanded the suspension of all forms of normalization of relationships with Israel.
The protestors handed over a message to be delivered to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan through the UN resident representative in Sana'a, James Rawley.
Meanwhile, Yemeni official newspapers harshly criticized US threats to strike Iraq and pointed out that the war will be catastrophic to peace and stability for the whole world. It is expected that even greater rallies will take place in the coming weeks, especially as the US military build-up in the gulf continues.