At least eight people were killed when armed tribes¬man launched an attack to stop maintenance crews repairing an oil pipe¬line blown up last month in south-east Yemen.
Six soldiers guarding the crews and two tribesmen were killed in the assault which succeeded in halting work on the line linking Yemen’s Ma¬sila oilfields to the al-Dabbah export facility on the Arabian Sea.
The pipeline, with a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day, was blown up twice in two days by unidentified assailants, disrupting an important source of revenue for the impover¬ished state.
Disgruntled tribesmen often carry out such attacks to pressure the gov¬ernment to provide jobs, settle land disputes or free relatives from prison.
Tensions between the govern¬ment and tribes in surrounding Hadramout province have been running particularly high since early December 2013, when an important chief was killed in a shooting at an army checkpoint, local media have reported. Tribesmen have said they would not allow the government to make repairs until it handed over the soldiers who killed the chief.
The tribes have also attacked gov¬ernment and energy facilities and late last month overran an oil ministry building in Hadramout.
The Arabian Peninsula country’s oil income has been in decline for the past decade, but still makes up about 70% of state revenues.
Yemen has been in turmoil since mass protests forced long-term leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in 2012. His successor, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been struggling to restore order.
