Houthi Movement

The Houthi Movement, officially Ansar Allah ("Supporters of God"), emerged in the 1990s in Yemen's northern Saada governorate as a Zaydi Shia revivalist movement led by members of the Houthi family. It is named after Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, an early leader killed by Yemeni government forces in 2004. Since his death, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has led the movement.

Between 2004 and 2010, the Houthis fought six rounds of war against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. After Yemen's 2011 uprising and the political transition that followed, the Houthis expanded southward, capturing the capital Sanaa in September 2014 and forcing President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to flee. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention to reverse Houthi gains, beginning a protracted war that the UN has repeatedly described as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The movement's slogan denounces the United States and Israel and references Jews, and its political ideology blends Zaydi religious revivalism, Yemeni nationalism, and anti-imperialism. Iran has provided varying levels of political and material support, though the extent of Iranian command-and-control is debated among analysts.

Key institutional facts:

• The Houthis control territory home to a majority of Yemen's population, including Sanaa, Hodeidah, and Saada.
• A UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022 and, while formally lapsing, reduced major frontline fighting.
• Following the October 2023 Gaza war, the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb, prompting US-UK strikes beginning in January 2024 and disrupting global trade through the Suez Canal.
• The United States designated the group a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in January 2024 and re-designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2025.