SUMMARY
[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946-1974, and to some extent 1975-1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975-1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975-1988.]
Oman came under the rule of the Al Bu Sa’id dynasty in the 18th century and the family preserved its hold on power into the 21st century. However, until the mid 20th century, the Sultans in the capital Muscat had only nominal control of the interior of the country, which had de facto been ruled by religious leaders, the Imams. Reflecting this divide, the country was named “Muscat and Oman” from 1913 until in 1970, the new Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id declared the foundation of the independent Sultanate of Oman. Oman was an inofficial British protectorate until 1971.
In 1957, an intrastate armed conflict broke out following the discovery of oil in the imamate in the interior of Oman. Sultan Said bin Taimur granted licences to British oil companies in the interior of Oman, although the Imam claimed sovereignty over the area. Subsequently, the Sultan took control of the whole Oman. The brother of the Imam fled to Saudi Arabia and began training an armed a rebel army to re-establish the Imamate in “Free Oman”. The supporters of Imamate engaged in combat with the Sultan’s troops in 1957. However, backed by British troops, the Sultan was able to restore his authority over the whole country.
From 1969 to 1975 another intrastate conflict shattered Oman. Since the late 1960s, popular dissatisfaction with Sultan Sa’id bin Taimur’s repressive rule and his failure to share the country’s oil revenues grew in the Dhofar region in southern Oman. Poorly organised local resistance groups emerged and developed into a socialist Arab nationalist organisation, the PFLOAG (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arab Gulf). The PFLOAG’s declared intention was to overthrow all traditional Arab Gulf regimes. In 1974 the group changed its name to PFLO (Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman) indicating the limitation of its goals to Omani territory. In response to the insurgence, Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id, in power since 1970, employed a dual strategy. On the one hand, he addressed the economic grievances of the Dhofari and granted the area some autonomy. On the other hand he attempted to suppress the rebellion militarily. Backed by British, Iranian and Jordanian troops, the Omani army was able cut the supply lines to the rebels from their secondary warring support South Yemen and had defeated the PFLO by end of 1975.
Since 1946 Oman has experienced the intrastate category of UCDP organised violence.
