Fares Mana'a

Who is Fares Mana'a?

Sheikh Fares Mohammed Mana'a is a top Yemeni arms-dealer, businessman, rebel commander and politician. He is said to be Yemen's most famous arms-dealer. Mana'a was born on February 8, 1965 in the northern city of Sa'dah and was an ally of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and member of his ruling GPC party and served as head of his Presidential committee and as head of a local council tasked with mediating a peace-deal between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels during the Shia insurgency in Yemen. His brother was the governor of Sa'dah Governorate at the time.

His name was however put on a United Nations Security Council list of people accused of trafficking arms to Somali Islamist insurgent group Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahedeen, which is considered as a terrorist organisation by the United States and is accused of with al-Qaeda. This led to his assets being frozen by the US Treasury Department. He was also accused of receiving millions in funds from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, spying for Libya and supplying arms to the Houthis. Mana'a denied these charges claiming that arms had been stolen by Houthis from an arms deposit he owned. In October 2009 was put at the top of a blacklist of Yemeni arms-dealers, after which he was put under surveillance.