Yemen Monitor / Hadramawt / Exclusive:
Military clashes erupted on Sunday between forces of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and gunmen affiliated with the Hadramawt Tribes Alliance, as residents issued an appeal for protection from abuses, they say they are being subjected to.
Local sources told Yemen Monitor that fighting broke out between STC forces deployed in the Ghail Bin Yameen District and parts of the deserts of Al-Shihr and Al-Dais Al-Sharqiya, as well as Wadi Khard, and forces of the Hadramawt Tribes Alliance along with armed local residents.
According to the sources, the clashes came as part of efforts to lift the siege on civilians trapped in those areas, amid continued military mobilization by the STC and the launch of raids and pursuit campaigns against civilians, involving various forms of abuses against residents.
Residents of Ghail Bin Yameen District issued an appeal statement expressing their strong condemnation of what they described as ongoing violations against citizens and civilian homes. They called on human rights organizations, the local authorities, and the Governor of Hadramawt to urgently intervene to halt the abuses and withdraw forces from residential neighborhoods and cemeteries that had been stormed.
The statement explained that the presence of forces inside villages is not based on any legal justification, especially given the existence of official, competent security agencies. It stressed that the raids on homes were carried out without orders from the Public Prosecution, the only authority legally empowered to issue such directives.
In the same context, residents of Al-Mu‘aymilah area, one of the villages in the rural parts of Al-Dais Al-Sharqiya, issued a similar condemnation statement. They said that the military deployment in citizens’ grazing lands had disrupted their sources of livelihood, created a state of fear among women and children, and prevented their livestock from grazing, despite the area—according to the statement—enjoying security and stability and facing no threats that would warrant such a deployment.
Residents accused the deployed forces of committing violations that included looting, vandalizing, and stealing civilians’ vehicles, stripping them of parts, and then dumping them in remote areas, further exacerbating fear and panic among the population. They said these actions constitute a flagrant violation of the law and human rights.
The residents of Ghail Bin Yameen District held the district’s director general fully responsible, calling on him to fulfill his duties in protecting citizens and their property and to work toward returning the forces to their camps and official military sites, warning of the consequences of continued escalation on social peace in Hadramawt.
