A recent incident involving the Dhul Bab governmental complex in Taiz governorate has highlighted what is described as the hypocrisy of the Ibb Brotherhood and their hostile stance towards achievements in the West Coast region.
The local authority in the Dhul Bab Al-Mandab district issued a clarification on Sunday regarding social media posts and images that it deemed an attempt to undermine efforts to renovate and rehabilitate the district's governmental complex. The clarification followed the inauguration of the complex on Wednesday by Commander of the National Resistance and member of the Presidential Leadership Council, Lieutenant General Tariq Saleh, accompanied by Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan and Dhul Bab Al-Mandab District Director Abdulqawi Al-Wajih.
Subsequently, activists, predominantly from the Brotherhood, circulated images of the building's dilapidated rear facade on social media, using them to attack the renovation project and mock its inauguration. In response, the local authority explained that the initial phase of the project focused on renovation, rehabilitation, and furnishing to urgently enable the local council and administration to resume their duties and serve citizens. They stated that approximately three-quarters of the complex has been made operational, with the damaged rear section, shown in the circulated image, designated for demolition in the second phase according to the pre-existing engineering plan.
While the official clarification effectively refuted the Brotherhood's campaign against the Dhul Bab governmental complex project, the incident serves as a new illustration of the group's alleged hypocrisy in Taiz, particularly concerning government headquarters. The Brotherhood and its activists have reportedly focused on criticizing the renovation project, while overlooking the looting and seizure of dozens of government facilities in Taiz city by armed groups and military formations under their influence in recent years. Many of these premises, including educational institutions like the Al-Hasab Governmental Institute, remain occupied by forces affiliated with the Taiz axis.
The issue of occupied government headquarters has been a contentious one in Taiz, with various political factions, elites, and activists debating it without a definitive resolution, despite the formation of several presidential committees over the years. The most recent committee was established during the August 2024 visit of Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi to Taiz city, tasked with vacating government buildings and citizen residences from military formations.
The matter of government headquarters occupied by Ibb-affiliated military formations resurfaced prominently with the assassination of the director of the Sanitation Fund in Taiz, Iftihan Al-Mashri, in September of the previous year. Efforts by the late Iftihan Al-Mashri to compel the evacuation of the fund's building in the Assifrah area from armed groups were reportedly a primary reason for the conflict between her and those accused of her assassination, a crime that shocked public opinion in Taiz and Yemen.
