Although the Saudi authorities have officially denied any reports of violence at its southern border posts with Yemen, tribal sources have confirmed that tribesmen indeed clashed with Saudi border patrol guards as they moved to resume the building of Saudi Arabia border fence on their territories.
As a result of the fighting one Yemeni man is said to have been killed and another wounded.
Keen to protect its territories from traffickers and terrorists, Saudi Arabia announced earlier this year it would resume the construction of its thousand-miles long border fence with Yemen, literally erecting a wall of concrete between the kingdom and its unruly Yemeni neighbor.
While the move can be justified and understood from a security stand-point as Saudi Arabia argues it can in all legitimacy take whatever measure it sees fit to protect its national interests and security, local Yemeni tribesmen see the move as an infringement on their lands and rights.
Subject to much controversy, the fencing project taps into the core of Yemen-Saudi Arabi territorial dispute with local northern tribes arguing that their oil giant of a neighbor illegally acquired Yemeni lands by offering Yemeni officials large financial settlements.
Moreover, according to 2000 Jeddah agreement, Saudi Arabia agreed to allow northern Yemeni tribes access to pastures sitting directly in between the two countries' border. The fence will de facto annul this right of passage, something tribal lords have said they would challenge.
By tribal chief Hussein Abu Dadra's own admission, Tuesday clashes were brought link to such issue as tribesmen have been prevented from reaching pastures for their livestock.
"We were caught by surprise this morning when construction of the fence had resumed. We fired on the construction company workers and the border guards fired back. We forced them to stop construction work," the Sheikh told Reuters.