Yemeni Tribes Resort to Offering Financial Rewards to Pursue Wanted Persons (Video)

Some tribes in Yemen do not want the state police forces to operate in their areas. The tribesmen are responsible for maintaining security in their communities. Marib province is an example. 

In some areas of Marib's Al-Wadi district of Marib, the tribes resort to customs and traditions to deal with any security issues. However, the civil war has created multiple security issues, making it challenging for tribespeople to prevent security-related troubles. 

Some tribal areas in Marib witnessed acts of sabotage, targeting the public road, service places, energy facilities, and assassinations and kidnappings of civilians and soldiers.

To counter the rise of security troubles, the tribal community in Marib resorted to encouraging citizens to search for wanted persons, report them, or arrest them. Financial rewards would be granted to the citizens who can do this. 

A tribal document signed on September 4th revealed that the Al Munif tribe was offering a reward estimated at thirty million Yemeni riyals, approximately $22,000, to anyone who provides information about who placed explosive devices on a road that targeted two cars and killed two people.

Some tribes in Marib refuse the deployment of military or security forces in their areas and pledge to play a security role. Still, these areas have recently witnessed security incidents due to infiltration by armed groups, taking advantage of this complex tribal environment to carry out operations against pro-government local and military leaders.

In a video clip shot by surveillance cameras, a tribal citizen tried to arrest a wanted man after identifying him. But the wanted person fled. That happened in an area called Al-Samadah in Al Shabwan of Marib and is subject to the protection of the tribe.

A security source confirmed the authenticity of the video and told Sheba Intelligence, "The wanted man, nicknamed Al-Khabour, is on the list of those accused of planting explosive devices, but an area like the Al-Wadi District is vast and needs three military regions if the tribes allow the security services to deploy there."

The government security and army forces are intensifying their presence on the frontlines where they fight the Houthi group and in Marib City, which is crowded with more than two million people who were displaced from their original areas due to the war.

The security services in Marib accuse the Houthi group of forming cells to carry out bombings and assassinations in Marib. The state-run TV channel broadcast the confessions of a person who was accused of being "within a Houthi cell that planted explosive devices and booby-trapped cars and participated in creating chaos between the tribes of Marib on the one hand and the army and security on the other hand."

According to the confessions that the security apparatus in Marib allowed to be broadcast, that person is the leader of the cell and belongs to the Houthi Preventive Security Apparatus (intelligence). His role is to plant explosive devices and car bombs to target military and security leaders and tribal figures as they pass through the international road line that connects Marib and Saudi Arabia.

The confessions included that his cell was behind the large number of deaths among the security forces and the tribes when a clash occurred between the Al-Aqar tribe and the security forces in June to expand the dispute between the tribe and the state in Marib.

Over the past three months, Marib has witnessed several clashes between security forces and tribesmen as security forces attempted to expand beyond the front lines and outside Marib city to pursue wanted individuals.