Houthis and the war in Yemen

Houthis and the war in Yemen

Subject – IR

Context – A suspected drone attack on Monday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), caused multiple explosions in which three people were killed — two Indians and one Pakistani. The Shia Houthi rebels of Yemen, who have been controlling the northern parts of the country, including the capital Sana’a, for almost seven years, have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Concept –

• Yemen is located at the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its coastline commanding the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab. The country has been wracked by civil war for more than seven years now, and the Houthis control the western part of the country, including the capital Sana’a.
• The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s north western Saada province. Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.
• The Zaid is ruled over Yemen for over a thousand years until 1962, when they were overthrown and a civil war followed, which lasted until 1970. The Houthi clan began to revive the Zaidi tradition from the 1980s, resisting the increasing influence of the Salafists, who were funded by the state.
• In 2004, the Houthis began an insurgent movement against the Yemeni government, naming themselves after the political, military, and religious leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was assassinated by Yemeni security forces in September of that year.
• Several years of conflict between the Houthis and Yemen’s Sunni majority government followed.

To know about Yemen civil war, please refer March 2021 DPN.