Published on 7 January 2014 in News
Nasser Al-Sakkaf (author)
SANA’A, Jan. 6—A new round of delegations was sent this week to several areas in the North in order to broker a peace deal between the Houthis and the Salafis, whose fighting has spread throughout the region since it began in the city of Dammaj in late October.
One presidential delegation arrived in the Haradh area of Hajja governorate on Sunday amid reports of more fighting between a group of Zaidi Shiites who have controlled parts of northern Yemen since 2011, known as the Houthis, and the the Salafis, who are conservative Sunnis.
A committee headed by Sana’a’s mayor, Abdulqader Hilal, arrived last week in Sa’ada governorate to focus his efforts on Dammaj.
The current commander of the Reserve Forces, Gen. Ali Al-Jayfi, has been tasked with reaching a peace deal in the Arhab district of Sana’a governorate between armed anti-Houthi tribesmen and Houthis. Fighting in Arhab is the most recent evidence that the conflict is spilling over into other parts of the country.
The central government has made repeated attempts to secure a peace deal between the two warring groups. A presidential delegation returned to Sana’a in December after being unable to get both sides to follow through with a compromise they had originally agreed to implement.
“If the government really wants to end the conflict between the Houthis and the Salafis, it will succeed,” said Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi representative at the National Dialogue Conference. “Otherwise, the [newest] committee will be as ineffective as the previous ones.”
On Sunday, demonstrators are planning to march from the city of Sa’ada to Dammaj after being bused from Sana’a in order to call for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
“There is coordination with the security authorities to secure the road the participants will travel on,” said Mohammed Al-Bashiri, the secretary general of the newly-established Al-Salam Party, a group known for its peaceful advocacy work.
Yahia Abu Asbo, the head of the original presidential committee that failed to secure peace in Dammaj, said President Hadi has ordered that those injured in the ongoing fighting receive medical treatment at the expense of the state.