Attachments
Authors: Andrea Carboni; Luca Nevola
Away from the high waters of the Red Sea, where they waged hundreds of attacks on commercial shipping, inside Yemen, the Houthis are grappling with growing domestic unrest. In recent months, the movement has carried out mass arrests of opposition figures, civil society groups, influencers, and humanitarian workers on charges of conspiring with the enemy. Increasingly restive tribes and alleged factional divisions add to the paranoia that characterizes Houthi rule, which they fear could be threatened if the country relapses into conflict.
Nowhere are these dynamics better illustrated than in Ibb, a Sunni-majority province in central Yemen that is home to nearly 4 million people and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people. Once dubbed Yemen’s “hotbed of infighting,” Ibb continues to harbor considerable instability despite efforts by the Houthis to co-opt local elites and avert potential threats. Rampant crime and a string of revenge killings further reveal ongoing struggles to restore security. At a high-level meeting convened in December, Ibb Governor Abdulwahid Salah admitted the challenges and called on the military and security services to work alongside the local authorities.
Interrogating Houthi repression and political disorder in Ibb serves as a barometer of simmering turmoil in Houthi-controlled areas. It highlights several patterns found in other governorates, including the repression of political plurality and freedom of opinion, land-related disorder and tribal disputes, and infighting within Houthi ranks.