Sana'a: Yemen's rebellious armed men have found a new tactic to squeeze more concessions from the troubled central government.
It is by sabotaging internet cables that pass through territories. Internet connections in three Yemen provinces have been almost brought to halt for three weeks when tribesmen targeted cables, an engineer from Yemennet, the internet provider in Yemen told Gulf News. "The tribesmen destroyed the international internet cable and set up their tent near the damaged, vowing to stay put until the government respond to their demand."
The tribesmen in many restive provinces restore to detonating oil and gas pipelines, electricity cables and blockade roads to forces government to bow to their demands of either releasing their convicted tribesmen or giving them jobs .
The most significant disruption of fuel that flow from the central troubled province of Mareb occurred in May 2010 when a suspected American drone targeted a local government official who a member of the influential Al Shbawan tribe.
The death of Jaber Al Shabwani,who was on clandestine dawn mission to convince Al Qaida militants to surrender, sparked angry reaction from his tribe who attacked security camps and sabotages oil pipeline.
As the government did not unveil the killer of their tribesman, armed men sporadically targeted oil supplies in the province. This week Yemen ministry of oil stated that the tribal banditry have hugely affected the country's oil industry and the government is unable to meet the country's spiraling demands for cooking gas.
A source told website of the ministry of defense that the country pay USD20millin to pay cooking gas from abroad to compensate the loss of the local production and the government is on verge of not being able to provide fund for importing more cooking gas. The road between Sana'a and the western port province of Hodeida was blocked by an influential constructor who demanded millions of Yemen Rials of delayed dues from the government.
Observers in Yemen think that local tribes are exploiting the turbulence in the country to hold government in ransom to offer them more concession. Others think that these tribes are just stooge for many parties weaken the government
"Many parties are launching a counterrevolution to proof that there is no difference between opposition government or the former ruling party's . Also they want to discredit the revolution's image as to tell people the youth revolution did only bring destruction and instability," said Ahmed Aydth, the editor of Marebpress
"Many tribes who were allied with Mr.Saleh's regime feared that the new government could cancel all privileges that they enjoyed in the past. Unfortunately , the people of Mareb pay the price of these actions. They stand in queues outside oil stations due to shortage of fuel," Aydth said.
