In Ibb, Dhamar and al-JawfTribal confrontations leave dozens killled and wounded [Archives:2005/859/Front Page]
Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
Armed confrontations broke out by the beginning of the week between tribes from Bani Omar and Gharadhan districts, the first of which is in Ibb Governorate and is 193 km south of Sana'a. The second is administratively affiliated to the governorate of Dhamar and is 100 km south of Sana'a.
The news stated that fierce clashes were renewed last Saturday when some armed tribesmen from Bani Omar made an ambush in the road linking the two districts against a Garadhan car to retaliate the killing of two of their fellows in last week's clashes.
The ambush destroyed a car. It also killed two children and a woman who were inside, others received bad injuries.
30 people have been killed and 100 injured from both sides in the tribal war, which erupted in March 2001between the two neighboring districts. The crisis is attributed to an old dispute over agricultural lands and artesian wells compelling the two parties to desert their farms.
The 4-year tribal war, which could not be resolved, has become a complicated problem for thousands of people living in those areas, particularly as the war expanded to cover most of the villages in the two districts.
The danger increases due to the formation of armed bands used to make ambushes and dominate the public and private properties, and their bad trends developed to target innocent women and children and kill them randomly.
A one-year breast-fed infant named Isamah was killed along with his mother Najah in a car ambush last week.
A number of security troops from Ibb and Dhamar governorates headed this week toward the battleground to settle the fierce tribal clashes, the news confirmed.
Observers stressed the tribal confrontations have been complicated due to being ignored for around four years, and the absence of the government represented by the judiciary is one of the reasons behind the killing of innocent victims.
Observers added despite directives of the President to settle the dispute, officials in both governorates could not succeed to suggest possible solutions, and this led the issue to change into revenge between the two parties.
Activists in revenge combat ascertain that leaving such clashes without a solution for several years eases their extension to different parts of the country and affects the status of the government in the eyes of citizens who may lose hope in the law enforcement.
On the other hand, the governorate of al-Jawf, 170 km east of Sana'a witnessed last Thursday a tribal war between Hamdan and al-Shulan tribes in which the two parties used different kinds of heavy weapons, causing damage to houses and evacuation of several families, however there has been no reports of casualties.
The war is attributed to old revenges between the two tribes that date back 25 years.
Al-Jawf sources told the Yemen Times the war has been stopped after the intervention of the President of the Republic, and Sheikhs of the two tribes.
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