{"id":7445,"date":"2026-10-08T07:28:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7445"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:28:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:28:51","slug":"yemens-government-needs-tribes-to-defeat-the-houthis-will-they-join-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=7445","title":{"rendered":"Yemen\u2019s government needs tribes to defeat the Houthis. Will they join? | Conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sanaa, Yemen \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The Yemeni government\u2019s new military offensive against the Houthis is testing more than the balance of forces in the country \u2013 it is also testing whether the government can persuade powerful tribes in Houthi-controlled areas that the balance of power is beginning to shift.<\/p>\n

For years, many of the tribes hostile or wary of the Iran-backed Houthis have stopped short of openly confronting the movement, deterred by their military strength and by previous failed uprisings. Those same tribes are now looking to the internationally recognised government\u2019s newly-activated frontlines \u2013 on the Red Sea coast, Marib and al-Jawf primarily \u2013 to see if the limited advances made since the Dawn of Yemen military operation<\/a> launch this week can turn into sustained gains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The offensive by the Saudi Arabia-backed government forces follows major Houthi gains in September, when the armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God) swept across the country\u2019s Red Sea coast. The Houthis captured vital trade corridors, including the port city of Mocha and territory around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world\u2019s most important shipping routes.<\/p>\n

While airstrikes have inflicted losses on Houthi forces over the past few days, pushing towards Houthi strongholds where the group has been entrenched since the war started in 2014, including Sanaa, Saada, and Amran, remains a formidable challenge.<\/p>\n

With the government declaring an all-out war on the Houthis, pledging to recapture Sanaa, tribal distrust of the government may diminish, prompting tribes to shift positions at the right time, experts say. The role of the tribes could therefore prove critical to the government\u2019s ability to advance deeper into Houthi-controlled territories.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Marib governorate \u2013 the government\u2019s stronghold in the north \u2013 saw a large tribal rally attended by tribal sheikhs and local anti-Houthi fighters from tribes such as the Jadan from Marib, Nihm from Sanaa and other allied tribes.<\/p>\n

The rally announced a general mobilisation to support the armed forces in the battle to \u201crestore the state and topple the Houthi coup\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this tribal support translates into actual mobilisation and sustained participation in the battle, tribes will help government troops advance toward Houthi-controlled areas and the Houthi heartland, including Sanaa,\u201d said Adel Dashela, a researcher at the Sana\u2019a Center for Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade of war in Yemen, tribes have repeatedly mobilised against the Houthis at a local level, but deep divisions and a lack of sustained outside backing have prevented the emergence of a unified tribal front. Nevertheless,\u00a0tribes can potentially be a key source of manpower and influence for the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cTribal fighters remain indispensable to any future campaign against the Houthis. But to be effective, their military engagement must occur through formalised state and coalition command structures, rather than as an independent vanguard,\u201d Dashela said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wait for the right time\u2019<\/h2>\n

Tribes in Yemen do not want to risk confronting Houthi forces without support, and they \u201cwait for the right time\u201d to act, Abdulsalam Mohammed, chairman of the Yemeni Abaad Studies and Research Center, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tribes seek a powerful state, and once they find the state reliable, they can side with it,\u201d Mohammed said.<\/p>\n

He added that tribes do not want to repeat mistakes made by tribes that had rebelled against the Houthis, and then not received enough support from the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose tribes revolted against the Houthis, and they were crushed amid the absence of the government\u2019s effective role,\u201d Mohammed said.<\/p>\n

In January 2019, fighting broke out between the Houthis and the Hajoor tribe in northwest Yemen\u2019s Hajjah, lasting several weeks. The Houthis eventually captured the Hajoor areas in March of the same year.<\/p>\n

At the time, Saudi Arabia dropped food, medical supplies and weapons to besieged Hajoor fighters, but this did not prevent the tribe\u2019s defeat by the Houthis.<\/p>\n

Mohammed said that even in areas where the Houthis have local support, some tribes could gradually shift their allegiance towards the government, if they saw it as serving their interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all tribes fighting for the Houthis are staunch supporters. Their motivations range from pragmatism to ideological loyalty and material necessity,\u201d Mohammed said.<\/p>\n

\u2018A friend of the tribe\u2019<\/h2>\n

Over the past decade, the Houthis have weakened traditional tribal power structures<\/a> in areas under their control, co-opting some leaders and replacing others with loyalists. They have defeated tribal challenges, and have withstood not only conflict with the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia, but also bombing by the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. All of that has reinforced a perception among tribes that the Houthi military capability had become \u201cinvincible\u201d.<\/p>\n

A tribal sheikh in northern Yemen, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told Al Jazeera that the Houthi military \u201csupremacy\u201d in the country over a decade-long war has \u201cdwarfed the political and military role of the tribe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the Houthi takeover of power, the government was like a friend of the tribe,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, the tribe is subordinate to the Houthis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Houthis, according to him, used three tactics to tighten their grip on territories under their control: military force, financial incentives and their public identification with the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houthis used military force if negotiations or financial incentives failed to win the tribes\u2019 backing. Moreover, the Houthi military support for Palestine has earned the group additional popular and tribal support,\u201d said\u00a0the tribal figure.<\/p>\n

As the Houthis built up enormous military and financial power over the past few years, the tribal sheikh said tribes acting alone could not match the group\u2019s power. He also said that the government\u2019s reported gains on some frontlines could not by themselves be taken as a sign that the Houthis were collapsing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA concrete government advance on the battlefields would reassure some Yemeni tribes that the Houthis have lost ground,\u201d the tribal sheikh said. \u201cOnce this materialises, anti-Houthi and neutral tribes can feel confident and begin confronting the group.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Sanaa, Yemen \u2013\u00a0The Yemeni government\u2019s new military offensive against the Houthis is testing more than the balance of forces in the country \u2013 it is also testing whether the government can persuade powerful tribes in Houthi-controlled areas that the balance of power is beginning to shift. For years, many of the tribes hostile or wary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t