SUMMARY

The year-long protest movement to force Saleh to resign in 2011 seriously destabilized Yemen, as Saleh's security forces divided against themselves, and as armed groups such as Alliance of Yemeni Tribes and Islah rebelled. In the power-vacuum both Ansarallah, which had intermittently fought against the government since 2004, and Islah began taking control of large swathes of Yemen. The relation between the two hard-liner Islamist groups, with Ansarallah being adherents to Zaydism (a branch of Shiism) and Islah being Sunni with Salafi leanings, had long been strained over Islah’s close ties to the Dar al-Hadith movement and to General Ali Mushin al-Ahmar, who had led the fight against Ansarallah on behalf of the government.

In March and April 2011, both Islah and Ansarallah captured various government facilities from the Saleh regime, putting them in direct contestation for control of the governorate. Heavy fighting erupted in July between the sides, after Ansarallah refused to hand over a military base to Islah in Hazm, al-Jawf, which Ansarallah had captured in April. Fighting spread to Hajjah governorate towards the end of the year, as Ansarallah attempted to expand into tribal areas where Islah had strong support. Further confrontation became inevitable as Ansarallah placed Dammaj, the center of the Dar al-Hadith movement, under siege in November, which galvanized Sunni, and in particular Salafi, opposition to the expansion of Ansarallah.

Clashes continued after Saleh’s resignation in November 2011, as the Yemeni government had little de facto control over much of the country, with local powerbrokers more aligned with various partisan groups than with the government. The clashes between Islah and Ansarallah killed at least 900 people over three years, with a further 400 killed in the clashes between Islah ally Dar al-Hadith and Ansarallah in the same period.

During 2014, Islah failed to hinder Ansarallah’s march on the capital, Sanaa, after which Ansarallah used its forces in the capital to force key Islah allies, including Muhsin and Basindawa, to resign from the government and flee the capital in September 2014. Ansarallah completed the coup in January 2015, by taking full control of the capital, thus becoming the Government of Yemen, and forcing President Hadi to flee to Aden. Islah became a key ally to Hadi as part of the Forces of Hadi (later renamed Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council), with Ali Muhsin as vice-president, as the civil war broke out in 2015.