Sufyān's “Hybrid” War: Tribal Politics during the Ḥūthī Conflict

Abstract

The Ḥūthī conflict, which erupted in 2004, produced profound changes in the power structures of Yemen's northernmost regions. A central, yet little-studied feature of the Ḥūthī conflict is the progressive involvement of the local tribes. The study retraces how the tribal momentum of the conflict developed, using the empirical example of Sufyān, a Bakīl tribe which controls a strategically important territory in the northern ʿAmrān governorate. In reviewing the battle for Sufyān, it is evident that incitement and exploitation of tribal blood feud by the warring parties was a striking feature of the late phase of the Ḥūthī conflict. Through a specific confluence of features this conflict became a kind of “hybrid” war, containing tribal, military-governmental, denominational, and personal (“big man”) elements and motivations that contributed to regional destabilisation and also had violent repercussions on the “Arab Spring” movement in Yemen.