In response, the President of the U.A.E., Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, financed the construction of the current dam of Marib in 1984.

According to the Abu Dhabi-based The National newspaper, "With 80 per cent of the province's population Sunni and only one of the five main tribes supportive of the Zaidi Shiite Houthis, tribal fighters managed to repel the attack.

The entire First Armoured Brigade, considered a military wing of al-Islah, based in Sanaa, was transferred to Marib in 2014 to defend the province.

Other sections of Yemen's military remained loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president overthrown by Arab Spring protests who has now sided with the Houthis against Hadi.

After the Saudi-led coalition joined the war in March 2015 and drove the Houthis from most of Yemen's southern provinces in July 2015, the focus shifted to Marib, known as the gateway to Sana'a, where the strong support base made it a natural location for an attack in the north.

The governor of Marib told Al-Jazeera that forces allied to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Gulf coalition were "perusing the last pockets of Houthis" in the province.

The coalition began moving supplies to Marib in March 2015, using land routes from Saudi Arabia through Hadramout and Shabwa provinces.

Loyalist military sources said further reinforcements including tanks, armoured vehicles, rocket launchers and Apache helicopters arrived August 2015.

"[13][11] On 4 September 2015, 52 Emirati, ten Saudi, five Bahraini servicemen of the Arab coalition and scores of pro-Hadi Yemeni soldiers were killed by a Houthi ballistic missile attack against a military base in Safer, Marib.

[21] On 27 May 2020, a Houthi missile attack targeted the headquarters of the army command of the Saudi-backed government in Marib Governorate killing eight soldiers including the Chief of Staff of the Republic of Yemen Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Sagheer bin Aziz's son and nephew.

This stands in sharp contrast to other areas around Yemen which at times suffer from a shortage of oil derivatives and wild price fluctuations.