Statement on Security in Governorate of Ibb

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Country/entity: Yemen
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Agreement name: Statement on Security in Governorate of Ibb
Date: 2 Jun 2015
Agreement status: Multiparty signed/agreed
Interim arrangement: Yes
Agreement/conflict level: Intrastate/local conflict
Yemeni Civil Wars (1994) (2011 - )
The Republic of Yemen was formed in May 1990 after the merger between the Yemeni Arab Republic (YAR) in the north and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) in the south. The unification process was rushed and the final agreement between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and President Ali Salem al-Beidh was based on the imperfect promise of equality. Following the merger, integration of the militaries and civil services was at best incomplete or at times entirely non-existent. When Saleh’s General Congress Party (GPC) allied itself with the newly created Islamist Islah (‘reform’) party in 1993, the former ruling party of South Yemen – the Yemen Socialist Party (YSP) – was effectively side-lined in the 1993 General Elections. Violence involving the use of heavy weaponry and aerial bombardment erupted in April 1994 and on the 21 May 1994 Vice President al-Beidh declared the secession of the south, citing political centralization with the northern highland tribes, violence against the YSP and economic discrimination. In the midst of fighting, negotiations in Cairo, Egypt, collapsed. The war ended with the military victory of the north, and on the 1 October 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh was elected President.

Despite the unification of Yemen in 1990, political power during the 1990s and 2000s remained centralized with the northern highland tribes, particularly the villages from which President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his confidants stemmed. The system of clientelism established through the ruling General People’s Congress party maintained relative loyalty among the fractured political allegiances of Yemen’s traditional tribal leadership. However, diminishing oil reserves and the shrinking opportunities for access to rent increased economic and political marginalization in Yemen’s peripheral communities. The degree of regionalism of conflicts is further defined by other local grievances. In the northern governorate of Sa’dah, a backlash was provoked among the local Zaydi Shi’a against Sunni Salafist cultural incursions resulting in six wars between 2004 and 2010. In the southern governorates of Hadramawt, Shabwa, al-Dhali and Abyan, civil and military personnel forcibly retired after the 1994 Civil War began protesting and eventually formed the secessionist Southern ‘al-Hiraak’ movement in 2007. Furthermore, tribal grievances have spurred attacks on oil companies and government installations to extract rents. Various takfiri groups including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have also increased their presence since 1995.

The Yemen Spring in early 2011 allowed all these movements to express their joint displeasure. Moreover, factionalism in the regime split the already weak military and thus allowed the Houthis, the takfiris and tribal-based militia known as popular committees, to assert themselves militarily. Mandated by the UN-sponsored Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative, the National Dialogue held from March 2013 to January 2014 aimed at guaranteeing power-sharing among the different parties. However, the GCC Initiative only included formal political parties that did not accurately reflect political realities. Furthermore, provisions lacked adequate transitional justice and provided former-President Saleh, as well as others, full amnesty. As a result, little faith was placed in the process by formerly marginalized groups such as the Zaydi Shia Houthi rebels (Ansar Allah) and al-Hiraak who opted to increase their bargaining power vis-à-vis the state by strengthening their own territorial enclaves. In September 2014 the Houthis succeeded in capturing the capital Sana’a and gradually expanded their control southward. The subsequent UN-mediated Peace and National Partnership Agreement between transitional president Hadi and the Houthis on a federal, democratic Yemeni state, failed to be implemented as the Houthis successfully dissolved the parliament and deposed Hadi in January 2015. Following the Saudi military intervention to restore the Hadi government in March 2015, ceasefire attempts continuously failed. A two-year deadlock ensued until negotiations between the Houthis and the government of Yemen finally culminated in the Stockholm Agreement in December 2018. However, throughout 2019 the Saudi-led coalition continues to launch airstrikes. Furthermore, in May 2017 the Southern al-Hiraak movement had declared the secessionist formation of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), seizing the interim-capital Aden by January 2018. Territorial divisions between the Yemeni government, the Houthis, forces affiliated with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, local militias and tribes have continued to fracture the country.
Stage: Pre-negotiation/process
Conflict nature: Government/territory
Peace process: Yemen peace process
Parties: 63 Imams and preachers
Third parties: -
Description: Short statement calling for Ibb Governorate to remain in peace and not allow the war in neighbouring provinces spill over.

Agreement document: YE_150602_Statement on Security in Governorate of Ibb.pdf (opens in new tab) | Download PDF
Agreement document (original language): YE_150602_Statement on Security in the Governorate of Ibb_AR.pdf (opens in new tab)| Download PDF

Local agreement properties

Process type: Informal but persistent process
Rationale: As in many other local examples, this text reflects a persistent practice of religious figures making a call or plea for peace. In some cases this involves a direct invitation to talks among certain parties, in this instance the text is a general statement encouraging peace in the governorate, and a call to all groups in the province to help ensure this.
Is there a documented link to a national peace process?: T
Link to national process: articulated rationale: The wider peace process is not specifically mentioned in the text. There is also no further research which indicates a clear structural link to the national peace process.
Name of Locale: Ibb governorate
Nature of Locale: Region
GPS Lat/Long (DD): 13.972798, 44.161822
Participant type: Domestic religious organisation/leader or other elder
Mediator, facilitator or similar: Mediator or similar referred to
Mediator (references): No mention of a mediator.
Type of mediator/facilitator/similar

Local issues

Ritual/prayer and process (including use of scripture): Page 1, Praise be to God: (And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and the wrath and curse of Allah are upon him and has cursed him and prepared for him a great punishment), Surah "the women", verse 93.

Page 1, Prayer and peace over our prophet Mohamed and his family, friends, and wives, and those who walked his course and traced his influence […] to the day of judgement.

Page 1, Paragraph 5...(c) [We ask God to raise from our country these tribulations and misfortunes and to guide those advocates of murder, sedition, war, and hatred, and unite the word of the people of Yemen in general, and the people of Ibb particularly, on what is good and righteous]
Grievance List: [Summary] (1) A general call for stability in the province to continue and the ending of any further existing or potential violence between all groups in the governorate (2) broad reference is made to the wider war in Yemen and the conditions in other provinces which have forced displaced people to move into Ibb, furthering the cause of the first point; encouraging peace and stability in the governorate.

Page 1, Paragraph 4...(c) [with the call to prohibit and criminalize the killing and fighting…The ongoing wars in some governorates and what is happening there are a lesson and a warning, with the killing of innocent people, the displacement of the population, and the destruction of public and private property.]
Cattle rustling/banditry: No specific mention.
Social cover: No specific mention.

Statement on Security in the Governorate of Ibb

2 June 2015

Important statement issued by imams and preachers of the governorate of Ibb concerning security in the governorate

Praise be to God:

(And whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and the wrath and curse of Allah are upon him and has cursed him and prepared for him a great punishment), Surah "the women", verse 93.

Prayer and peace over our prophet Mohamed and his family, friends, and wives, and those who walked his course and traced his influence […] to the day of judgement.

Given what is going through our beloved country due to war, imams and preachers have been compelled to ensure the governorate stays safe and stable, away from violence and fighting from any party, with the call to prohibit and criminalize the killing and fighting and bloodletting sinking it into a civil war which destroys everything.

The ongoing wars in some governorates and what is happening there are a lesson and a warning, with the killing of innocent people, the displacement of the population, and the destruction of public and private property.

We call on all sons the governorate in all orientations and backgrounds to unite as one against those who call for killing and fighting inside the governorate and cooperate with all the honorable in order to keep the preservation of the governorate of Ibb being quiet and stable as it has become a haven for the displaced and refugees from all governorates inflamed by the war with the prohibition and criminalization of all sectarian, doctrinal, regional, and racist calls.

We ask God to raise from our country these tribulations and misfortunes and to guide those advocates of murder, sedition, war, and hatred, and unite the word of the people of Yemen in general, and the people of Ibb particularly, on what is good and righteous.

Issued on 15 August 1436 (Islamic Calendar), 2nd June, 2015.