Al-Qaeda exploits security vacuum in Yemen to destabilize

Aya Ezz

Al-Qaeda in Yemen is carrying out many terrorist operations with the aim of overthrowing the legitimate government and imposing control over several regions of the country.

Diverse operations

The organization has carried out various operations against the security forces and the Arab coalition forces supporting the legitimate government and Western interests in the country, including the use of drones, as it carried out several attacks in Shabwa Governorate, southern Yemen, in June 2023.

A UN report said that these operations constitute a serious development in the capabilities of the terrorist organization and increase the risk of harm to civilians and infrastructure.

Use of explosive devices

Al-Qaeda also frequently uses explosive devices to target vehicles and individuals. In April, it said that it had targeted a military vehicle belonging to the southern forces with two explosive devices in Abyan Governorate, southern Yemen, and in March, it carried out an assassination of a high-ranking security officer in Rada’a district in Al-Bayda Governorate using an explosive device.

The organization also resorted to armed attacks with light and heavy weapons against security and military sites and gatherings. In February, al-Qaeda militants stormed a prison in the Mukalla district of Hadramout Governorate and released 150 prisoners of the organization’s members.

Reasons for the increase in regulation

The governorates of Shabwa and Abyan in southern Yemen have witnessed an escalation in al-Qaeda operations during the past months, as the organization carried out 29 terrorist operations in less than half a year.

The reasons for the increase in the organization’s operations, according to Yemeni political analyst Mohamed Badran, are due to various factors, including its exploitation of the security and political vacuum in the country and the weakness of the security services and local authorities in confronting it.

The terrorist organization benefited from the liberation of prisoners by the terrorist Houthi militia in return for carrying out terrorist operations by proxy and providing operational training for some Houthi fighters, as well as the organization’s spread in remote and mountainous areas between Abyan, Shabwa and Al-Bayda, which are difficult to target by drones, in addition to the organization’s reliance on IED warfare, ambushes, and armed attacks to destabilize the governorates and create chaos.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen a threat to security and stability

Badran confirmed in an exclusive statement to the Reference that al-Qaeda in Yemen poses a major threat to security and stability in the country and the region and causes severe harm to the civilian population and infrastructure. He added that the organization’s operations have many negative consequences, including disrupting political and military efforts to end the war in Yemen, restore legitimacy, and implement the Riyadh Agreement and the Stockholm Agreement; endangering the lives of soldiers, officers and security personnel and creating a state of fear and anxiety among them; terrorizing the civilian population, sowing discord and division among them, and violating their rights and dignity; destroying public and private property and sabotaging roads, bridges, electrical and communications lines; weakening the local economy; and increasing the suffering of the Yemeni people with poverty, hunger and epidemics.