Ma’rib tribes start acting against Brotherhood

Ali Rajab

Tribes in the northern Yemeni province of Ma’rib are rising up against the Muslim Brotherhood, with the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah), the political arm of the Brotherhood in Yemen, stepping up its violations in the province.

The violations of the party ranged between kidnappings, stealing and corruption.

Ma’rib’s population is mainly made up of a number of tribes. Tribes also play an important role on the Yemeni political stage. There are around 200 tribes in Yemen.

“These tribes also play an important role in political decision-making in Yemen,” said Samir al-Shameri, a professor of political sociology at Aden University.

The Brotherhood had massacred a large number of civilians in Ma’rib, after some of the tribes of the province refused to hand over to it a plot of land a Brotherhood leader wanted to lay his hands on.

The incident triggered battles between tribesmen and Brotherhood militants, leaving dozens of people on both sides dead and injured. One of the victims was a senior Brotherhood leader who used to be the security chief in Ma’rib.

On October 21, 2018, the Brotherhood murdered a policemen affiliated to Murad tribe in one of its jail cells. The policeman was murdered after weeks of torture.

This was one of many crimes committed by the Brotherhood against the residents of Ma’rib.

Saad al-Jaradi, a senior leader of the anti-Brotherhood resistance in Ma’rib, revealed that the Brotherhood had sidelined all military commanders who were not members of Islah Party.

Instead of the military commanders, al-Jaradi said, the Brotherhood had appointed schoolteachers who were members of their party.

He noted that the Brotherhood had also turned the Yemeni army in Ma’rib into a Brotherhood militia whose only role is to serve the interests of Islah Party.

Yemeni journalist Mohssen al-Muradi unveiled on his Twitter account parts of the corruption of the Brotherhood party,

He said the party stole 540 billion Yemeni riyals during the past three years.

He said the Brotherhood used this money in strengthening its influence in Yemen.

“The revenues of the Yemeni state in Ma’rib do not go to the state treasury or the central bank, but to the Muslim Brotherhood,” al-Muradi said.

Ubaida Tribe, one of the largest in Yemen, issued a statement recently in which it criticized Islah Party.

It accused it of committing gross violations, including the destruction of homes and killing of women and children.

The tribe held the Brotherhood responsible for Ma’rib’s slide into civil war.