Al Sharq Strategic ResearchYemeni conflict overview
After the protests broke out in the first half of February 2011, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made several attempts to reduce tension in the society. However, by that time a long-standing conflict between two groups of Yemenite elites – the clan of Saleh and the Ahmars clan had been very clearly festering (whereas the Ahmars controlled many important highly effective units of the Yemeni armed forces).
On February 26, 2011, several leaders of the two largest Yemeni tribal confederations, the Hashid and Bakil (grouped around the al-Ahmar clan) announced their transition to the side of the opposition. In March, one of the leaders of the tribal confederation Hashid Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the northern military district and the first armored division (one of the most efficient in the country), announced his withdrawal from the General People’s Congress – the ruling party.
The main party of moderate Islamists in Yemen, at that time, was the Yemeni Congregation for Reform frequently called “al-Islah” that has rather close links both with the Yemen Muslim Brothers, as well as salafis, and with the Ahmar clan.[i] Quite predictably this party joined the Ahmar clan in its attempts to overthrow Ali Abdullah Saleh.
On November 23, 2011, in Riyadh, a plan was signed to settle the Yemen crisis, generated by the Arab Spring. This ended the 33-year period of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule. After Ali Saleh’s resignation, Vice-President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi took the post on the basis of the results of the uncontested elections on February 21, 2012.