Abu Dhabi’s envoys are located throughout Africa, not to spread peace, love, or happiness – as promoted by the UAE to be a part of its external policies – but in search of mercenaries from Arab tribes to be recruited to fight in the Yemen war as Emirati soldiers.

Rumours from the neighbourhood of Campo Tiouli in the city of Sabha, southern Libya, are is being spread about an Emirati campaign to recruit Arab tribesmen to send to fight in Yemen.

In this area, lives a group of families originating from the nomadic Arab tribes scattered even in Chad and Niger. The dream of travelling to Europe drives the young tribesmen to make a living out of shepherding and smuggling on the southern border, especially cigarettes and illegal immigrants, Arabi21 reported.

Abu Dhabi lures these young tribesmen, with promises of new horizons in front of them. Such attractive offers include compensations ranging from $ 900 to $3,000, in addition to acquiring the UAE citizenship, in return for applying to job offers in UAE security companies.

Read: Saudi Arabia admits coalition ‘mistakes’ in targeting in Yemen

A delegation of Emirati people in business visited Niger in January 2018, where they met Arab tribal leaders and recruited ten thousand tribesmen living between Libya, Chad, and Niger.

Chadian activists launched an online campaign warning young men of Abu Dhabi’s recruitment plan of Arab tribesmen in Central Africa to join the UAE in the Yemen War. One of the most notable actions undertaken by the awareness campaign was a video by the activist Mohamed Zain Ibrahim, warning Chadians and Nigerians of these job offers.

Ibrahim considered these job opportunities as constituting “an actual military recruitment campaign to gather mercenaries for the Yemeni war and use them to fight the people of Yemen, who are Arabs and Muslims as well, and all that for a bunch of dollars.”

He added: “The Arabs of the Gulf region, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have never bothered to get to know the Arabs of the desert, and today they are asking for their support and seducing them to fight by their side in Yemen!”

Ibrahim told Arabi21 that his real motives for the creation of the warning videos came from the fact that he possessed documented information about Abu Dhabi’s recruitment campaign targeting the Arab tribesmen in Chad. This campaign is supervised by Emirati officials who gained material profits in collaboration with human traffickers.