The Yemeni activist Ibrahim Mothana, who campaigned against the U.S. use of drones and participated in Yemen’s youth-led uprising, has died at the age of 24. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear; one Facebook commenter said he had a heart attack. Last year, in an open letter to President Obama published in The New York Times, Mothana wrote: “Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology but rather by a sense of revenge and despair … rather than winning the hearts and minds of Yemeni civilians, America is alienating them by killing their relatives and friends.” In 2011, Mothana spoke about the future of Yemen at an event in Sweden.

Ibrahim Mothana: “As I’m speaking now, we have like drones and air strikes, U.S. air strikes in Abyan, and it won’t work. It will never work, unless you tackle the issue comprehensively, you try to see the whole image, you see why — what is the drivers of extremism, what is the drivers of the lack of security. Then you will be able to solve it. You cannot just isolate it and try to solve it alone; it’s a package.”