Yemen Conflict and the Houthi Movement

The Houthis are an armed political and religious movement from northern Yemen. Their official name is Ansar Allah, which means "Supporters of God". They belong to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam. Since 2014 they have controlled Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and most of the country's populated north. They are a key member of Iran's network of allied armed groups in West Asia.

Why should a UPSC student care?

Yemen sits at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. It looks over the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow gate between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A large share of trade between Asia and Europe, including Indian exports, passes through this gate on its way to the Suez Canal. When the Houthis attack ships here, freight and insurance costs rise and many ships must take the long route around Africa. So a "local" group in Yemen can shake world trade, oil prices and Gulf security.

Where did the movement come from?

Yemen has a long history of Zaydi rule. Zaydi imams ruled north Yemen for about a thousand years, until a revolution in 1962 turned it into a republic. North and South Yemen then united in 1990 under President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

• In the early 1990s, a Zaydi revival group called the Believing Youth began in the northern province of Saada. Its leading figure became Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a cleric and former member of Parliament. The movement takes its name from his family.
• The group opposed what it saw as the neglect of Zaydi areas, the spread of strict Sunni (Wahhabi/Salafi) teaching, government corruption and Yemen's close ties with the US after 2001.
• In June 2004, the Saleh government tried to arrest Hussein al-Houthi. Fighting broke out, and he was killed by Yemeni forces in September 2004. Leadership later passed to his brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who still leads the group.
• Between 2004 and 2010, the government fought six rounds of war against the Houthis in Saada (the "Saada wars"). Saudi Arabia also fought them on the border in 2009-10. The movement survived and grew stronger.

How did the Houthis take power?

In 2011, Arab Spring protests forced Saleh to hand over power to his deputy, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, under a Gulf-backed deal. The new government was weak. In September 2014, the Houthis, helped by forces still loyal to Saleh, captured Sanaa. In early 2015, Hadi fled to the south and then to Saudi Arabia. (The Houthis later fell out with Saleh and killed him in December 2017.)

How did it become a regional war?

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of mainly Arab states, including the UAE, began air strikes to restore Hadi's government. Saudi Arabia saw the Houthis as an Iranian foothold on its southern border. The war turned into a proxy war: Iran backed the Houthis, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE backed anti-Houthi forces. Over time, the Houthis built up missiles and drones, which Western and UN experts say came largely from Iranian designs and supply. Iran denies arming them.

What has the United Nations done?

• UN Security Council Resolution 2216 (14 April 2015) demanded that the Houthis withdraw from areas they had seized and hand back captured weapons. It placed an arms embargo on named Houthi leaders. It passed 14-0, with Russia abstaining (not voting either way).
• Resolution 2624 (February 2022) extended this arms embargo to the Houthis as a whole group.
• The Stockholm Agreement (13 December 2018), reached in UN-led talks in Sweden, set up a ceasefire around the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, plus a prisoner swap and understandings on the city of Taiz.
• A UN-brokered nationwide truce in April 2022 brought the calmest period of the war. In the same month (7 April 2022), Hadi handed his powers to an eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, which is the internationally recognised government.

Who controls what in Yemen?

Yemen is divided among several forces:

• The Houthis: Sanaa and most of the populous north and west.
• The internationally recognised government (Presidential Leadership Council): based mainly in Aden and parts of the south and east.
• The Southern Transitional Council (STC): a UAE-backed group that wants South Yemen to become separate again. It is formally part of the government camp but has its own goals.
• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP): a terrorist group active in some remote areas.

The Red Sea campaign

After the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, the Houthis started attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they linked to Israel, and later to the US and UK. On 19 November 2023, they seized the cargo ship Galaxy Leader and held its 25 crew for more than a year. In December 2023, the US launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational naval effort to protect shipping. The US and UK also bombed Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024 and 2025.

How does the US classify them?

In January 2021, the US named the Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), but removed this a month later because aid groups warned it would block food and medicine. In January 2024, the US listed them as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (a lighter label). On 4 March 2025, the US State Department again designated Ansar Allah as an FTO, and this took effect on 5 March 2025. The United Nations does not list the Houthis as a terrorist group, and India follows UN listings.

The Houthis and the "Axis of Resistance"

Iran supports a loose network of allied groups that oppose Israel and the US presence in West Asia. Iran calls it the "Axis of Resistance". It has included Hezbollah in Lebanon, armed groups in Iraq, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis are not simply Iran's puppets: they have their own local goals and take many decisions on their own. But when Iran is in a war, they can open a second front, as their attacks on Saudi Arabia show.

India's position and Indian examples

• In Operation Raahat (March-April 2015), India evacuated its citizens from war-hit Yemen by air and sea, using Indian Navy ships and Air India flights, with Djibouti as the transit point. The Ministry of External Affairs later put the total at 6,688 people: 4,741 Indians and 1,947 foreign nationals from many countries.
• During the 2023-24 Red Sea crisis, the Indian Navy deployed warships in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to protect merchant ships and rescue crews.
• India keeps working ties with all sides: Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It calls for dialogue, freedom of navigation and protection of civilians, and it sends humanitarian aid to Yemen.
• Higher shipping costs through the Red Sea directly hurt Indian exporters, since much of India's trade with Europe uses this route.

Commonly confused concepts

• Houthis vs Hezbollah vs Hamas: The Houthis are Zaydi Shia from Yemen. Hezbollah is a Twelver Shia group in Lebanon. Hamas is a Sunni group in Gaza. All three are Iran-backed, but they are separate groups with different origins.
• Zaydi vs Twelver Shia: Iran follows Twelver Shia Islam (the majority Shia branch). Zaydis are a different, smaller Shia branch whose beliefs and practices are in some ways closer to Sunni Islam. So the Houthi-Iran link is political more than religious.
• Bab-el-Mandeb vs Strait of Hormuz: Bab-el-Mandeb is between Yemen and Djibouti/Eritrea, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Hormuz is between Iran and Oman, linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The Houthis threaten the first; Iran controls the second.
• Aden vs Gulf of Aden: Aden is a port city in southern Yemen (seat of the recognised government). The Gulf of Aden is the sea between Yemen and Somalia.
• Saudi-led coalition vs Operation Prosperity Guardian: The coalition (from 2015) fought the Houthis on land and from the air to restore Yemen's government. Prosperity Guardian (from December 2023) is a naval effort to protect ships.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Humanitarian crisis: The UN has repeatedly called Yemen one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people depending on food aid. Blockades, air strikes and a collapsed economy have all added to the suffering.
• Terror label vs aid: Supporters of the FTO label say it cuts off the Houthis' money and weapons. Aid groups warn that it can make it harder to deliver food and fuel to areas the Houthis control, where most Yemenis live.
• Global trade: Houthi attacks show how a non-state armed group (a group that is not a country's official army) can disrupt a global sea route with cheap drones and missiles.
• Regional war risk: Attacks on Saudi Arabia risk pulling the Gulf monarchies deeper into the wider Iran war.
• Way forward: The UN and most experts say there is no military solution. They call for a lasting ceasefire, a Yemeni-led political process that includes all groups, reopening of ports and airports, and a wider Saudi-Iran understanding. Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties in March 2023 through talks hosted by China, which showed that such deals are possible.

Concepts to Know

• Proxy war: A war in which big powers do not fight each other directly but support different local sides with money, weapons or training.
• Zaydi: A branch of Shia Islam found mainly in northern Yemen. It is different from the Twelver Shia Islam followed in Iran.
• Arms embargo: A ban on selling or giving weapons to a country, group or person.
• Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO): A label the US State Department gives a foreign group under US law. It becomes a crime to give that group money or any other support.
• Chokepoint: A narrow sea passage that many ships must use. If it is blocked, world trade is badly hit.
• Non-state actor: A group that uses force or has power but is not a government, such as a militia or a rebel group.