Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar was a Yemeni politician who served as the first President of the Republic of Yemen, from Yemeni unification on 22 May 1990, to his resignation on 27 February 2012, following the Yemeni Revolution. Previously, he had served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, from July 1978, to 22 May 1990, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi.

The Yemeni revolution followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the 2011 Egyptian revolution and other Arab Spring protests in the Middle East and North Africa. In its early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. The protesters' demands then escalated to calls for the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mass defections from the military, as well as from Saleh's government, effectively rendered much of the country outside of the government's control, and protesters vowed to defy its authority.