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Behind the Front Lines in Yemen's Marib

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Behind the Front Lines in Yemen's Marib Our Journey Published 17 April 2020 By Peter Salisbury, Crisis Group Senior Analyst, Yemen Behind the Front Lines in Yemen’s Marib Just before major battles in northern Yemen and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crisis Group expert Peter Salisbury travelled to Marib, the government’s last stronghold. He found a region coping well with massive displacement but fearing a settlement that would favour the advancing Huthis. ive years into Yemen’s civil war, it was a The eight days ahead of me were a precious long, hard struggle to enter the coun- chance to visit a part of Yemen I hadn’t seen in F try, as it usually is for foreigners like a decade, since the days before the 2011 upris- me. I spent the months before travelling doing ing that unseated former President Ali Abdullah bureaucratic outreach to get my government Saleh. Yemen, always divided, has fragmented visa, and sleepless nights waiting for last-min- over the course of the conflict. Prior to the ute security clearances. So it was a relief to join revolt, which preceded the failed transition in the chatter and selfie taking of the Yemenis of 2012-2014 and the current civil war, it was queueing to board the flight from Cairo to Sei- fairly easy to hop from one patch of the country youn, Hadramawt, on New Year’s Eve. to another. No longer. The capital, Sanaa, and All images by the author. Government soldier stands guard at Marib’s Mahram Belqis, 170km east of the capital Sanaa. INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP · 17 APRIL 2020 2 Cliffs and mud-brick skyscrapers in Shibam. On the way to Marib. the southern port of Aden might as well be in Yemen. Yemenia Airlines had warned me that different countries. The war is so heated that the flight would be busy. At $1,000 for a round- swathes of territory often change hands on a trip ticket from one of the most impoverished monthly basis. places on the planet, it’s not surprising that the I was researching a new report on how to Yemenis who fly out and back, many for medi- end the war, so I needed to talk to as many par- cal treatment, make the journey count. Almost ties on the ground as possible. Since late 2018, everyone seemed to have filled a luggage cart I’ve travelled to the front lines of the war on the to capacity with boxes, blankets and large bags. west coast, to contested Aden and to Sanaa in Amazingly, the battered airliner took off with the Huthi-controlled northern highlands. Now only a 45-minute delay. I wanted to reach Marib, the internationally We landed safely in Seiyoun. So far, the war recognised government’s last major stronghold. has scarcely touched Hadramawt, the eastern Over the course of the war, Marib has become governorate of which this city is part. The el- a refuge for internally displaced people and an egant mud-brick skyscrapers of nearby Shibam, economic hub. A few weeks after I was there the green spaces and craggy cliffs all round remind- Huthis launched a major offensive on govern- ed me of all that is beautiful about Yemen. ment positions in the north, capturing the capi- I had no time to linger. We needed to head tal of al-Jawf province to Marib’s north before out into the open desert to make the 440km marching toward Marib city and adjacent oil drive west to Marib, with its many checkpoints. and gas infrastructure. Fearing that the fighting Along the way, a detail of armed guards sent might make the war harder to end, and that the by Marib’s governor appeared to accompany COVID-19 virus might soon reach Yemen, UN us along the desert road. It was still early, and Secretary-General António Guterres called for a they stopped for breakfast. Sipping scalding- nationwide ceasefire on 25 March. hot cardamom-laced tea and scooping up liver But I didn’t know about the fighting or the and eggs with fresh flat bread helped me adjust pandemic to come at the time of my trip, and to being back in Yemen proper. It was a far cry I was focused on the task at hand: getting to from the meetings with politicians that I had in hotels and cafés in Cairo on my way here. As our car climbed from the desert into the “ It’s one thing to be told that foothills and we entered Marib city, I was struck things are normal and another to by how busy this once-sleepy provincial centre experience it in person. ” has become. What was a town of 30,000 people INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP · 17 APRIL 2020 3 Marib street scene by night. before the war began in 2015 has grown into a sale of the province’s oil and gas across Yemen. city that local authorities say now houses 1.8 Marib city, once a one-road town with a single million. The population of the governorate is restaurant, now has some surprisingly well- reckoned to have grown tenfold, from 300,000 appointed hotels, private banks, big supermar- people to three million. The International kets, four-lane highways, a university, a football Organization for Migration estimates that stadium and numerous restaurants, including 800,000 people fleeing fighting in other parts an outpost of the nationally famous Shaibani of the country have come here seeking refuge. chain. Authorities announced construction of a The pace of change, everyone told me, has new international airport the day after I arrived. picked up over the past two years as security Marib is just half an hour from the front has improved and the local economy begun to lines, which seems to bolster a distinct sense grow, fuelled by an influx of money from other of municipal pride. People overwhelmingly parts of the country and revenues from the wanted to tell me about the city’s growth and Breakfast with armed guards. General Mohammed al-Maqdashi, defence minister in the Yemeni government. INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP · 17 APRIL 2020 4 relative calm. Allies of the government and them. Along with local tribal leaders, Maq- the local authorities (who each claim Marib’s dashi helped mount the defence of Marib success story for themselves) pressed the point and, in 2015-2016, pushed the Huthis back that the city is an island of stability and good toward Sanaa, located 170km to the west. His governance in the midst of a chaotic civil war. headquarters are in a modest air-conditioned It’s one thing to be told that things are building with SUVs and pickups equipped with normal and another to experience it in person. machine guns parked outside. Although I was a pretty rare sight as a foreigner, The Huthis frequently target military build- I didn’t feel any threat or even great curiosity. ings with missiles, so we soon moved to the I was even able to take short walks to tea shops general’s home for lunch. We discussed the and restaurants at night, something that has situation in Yemen late into the afternoon. He become almost impossible for me since the suggested who among the Huthis could be a war began elsewhere in the country, because of partner for making peace and how important it either a lack of security or heavy-handed polic- is for him to be present in Yemen. Other min- ing by local authorities. isters are either far away from the front in the One of the first people I met in Marib was temporary capital, Aden, or outside the country. General Mohammed al-Maqdashi, the defence Most spend their time in Cairo and Riyadh. minister in the Yemeni government. After Saudi Marib and al-Jawf are critical to under- Arabia intervened in the nascent civil war in standing the various interests of the mix of March 2015, he was part of a small group of forces fighting the Huthis, their capacities and officers who volunteered to rebuild the Yem- perspectives. Without taking these into account, eni army to fight the Huthis. Large parts of no peace deal is likely to work. the military and security services defected to My working days involved constant shuttling the Huthis’ side early in the conflict, and there between hotels, offices and homes for meetings. was little guidance for soldiers who opposed On Friday morning, there were no meetings and The former centre of the pre-Islamic Sabaean Kingdom and domain of the legendary Queen of Sheba, Marib. INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP · 17 APRIL 2020 5 Marib dam, twenty minutes from the front lines. Traditional Yemeni mud-brick house in Serwa. I decided to take in the sights of Marib, which Before the war, the Marib dam attracted until the mid-2000s was a popular destination visitors from Yemen, the Gulf and the rest of for tourists visiting Yemen. The last time I was the world. I was surprised to find that it’s still a here, I hoped to find out more about this former Yemeni holiday destination. I met families who centre of the pre-Islamic Sabaean Kingdom and told me they had driven 570km from Huthi- domain of the legendary Queen of Sheba. But controlled Ibb in central Yemen to vacation local security forces sent me back to Sanaa, say- here. Locals, like the men in this picture, also ing they were nervous I’d be a target of the local like to relax in the reservoir’s cool water on a al-Qaeda branch – a threat residents say the hot January day.
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