All bet on tribesmen in Yemen’s unrest

By Nasser Arrabyee/15/03/2011

The tribesmen are still a real power in the current unrest of Yemen. The embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh bets on them , the opposition uses them, the young people who protest in the streets boast of the increasing groups of tribesmen who join them in the sit-in squares almost every day.

The religious leaders seek protection from powerful tribes. The famous cleric, Abdul Majid Al Zandani left the capital Sana’a this week to his powerful tribe in Arhab, after he told the protesters the Islamic Caliphate will be established in 2025 if they keep their revolutionary enthusiasm as high as it is now.

The armed tribesmen in the almost lawless provinces of Marib and Al Jawf decided to occupy the headquarters of their local governments on Monday March 14th, 2011.

The governor of Marib, Naji Al Zaydi escaped to Sana’a on the same day after being seriously stabbed by one of the tribesmen who were demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the governor Al Zaydi who is also from Marib but from a different tribe.

The tribesmen explode an oil pipeline after failed to occupy the headquarters of the local government. They wanted the governor and President to tell them who killed Jaber Al Shabwani, the deputy governor who was mistakenly killed in an air strike which targeted Al Qaeda operatives last year in Marib.

The governor of Al Jawf, Yahya Ghawdal,was dismissed from his office on the same day by the tribesmen who occupied the local government buildings.

Three security men were killed in another area of the province by armed tribesmen who took revenge for three tribesmen who were injured by the bodyguards of the governor Ghawdal before the government headquarters was occupied.

Tuesday, the tribal leader, Naji Nasm, was killed by tribesmen loyal to the government who came to liberate the occupied headquarters.

“We do not want the governor, we want someone from us not from another province,” said the local tribal leader, Abdullah Al Jamili who supports anti-government protests but refuses the violence. “We refuse this violence, but warned from it, we told the President we want another governor.”


The President Saleh has been mobilizing the tribesmen from all over the country since the beginning of the protests that demand his ouster more than one month ago.

On Thursday March 10th, 2011, President Saleh’s party paid about 10 million dollars to more than 40,000 tribesmen and religious leaders who came from all over the country to the capital Sana’a to support him and listen to his third initiative.