Yemeni civil war (2014–present)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Yemeni civil war has left the country with two rival governments, and each insists that it alone is the official one. On one side stands the Presidential Leadership Council, led by Rashad al-Alimi. On the other stands the Supreme Political Council, led by Mahdi al-Mashat. Both command supporters and allies. The multilateral fighting between them began in late 2014 and has not ended. Observers have often called it the world's forgotten war.

  This documentary asks how a country with deep religious and regional fault lines came to split this way. It asks who sent aircraft, weapons or warships, and whether the stories about foreign hands hold up. It asks what happened in the south, where allies of one camp turned on each other. And it asks what the fighting has done to ordinary Yemenis, and whether anyone has found a way to stop it.

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• 2. Ancient Fault Lines

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  In the 11th century, the Ismaili states ruled by the Hamdan tribe fell, and Yemen's religious map shifted. As the Ayyubid expansion arrived, most of the Hamdan tribe converted to Zaydism, a Shia sect. Later, during the Rasulid period, Shafi'i Sunni Islam gained popularity. For a long time the Zaydis in the north and the Rasulid rulers in the south competed for dominance. That rivalry faded as Rasulid power declined and imperial powers, including the Ottoman Empire, took a greater interest in the region.

  The Ottoman defeat in the First World War eventually opened the way to a first, incomplete unification of Yemen. It happened under the Hamid al-Din dynasty, ruled by Imam Yahya and then by his son. With it came a hierarchy in which Zaydis held authority over Sunnis, so the difference in status became settled and normal. The dynasty also angered Zaydis by failing to follow Zaydi traditions. In 1962 Imam Yahya's grandson, Imam Badr, was overthrown.

  A war between republicans and royalists followed the events of 1962. Helen Lackner explains that this split was not ideological and grew out of older feuds. Saudi Arabia nevertheless intervened for ideological reasons, because it wanted to preserve the monarchy it practiced itself. Despite its aims, the republican form was kept in 1970.

  In southern Arabia, liberation movements against British presence produced the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, a socialist state allied with the Soviet Union. This southern state had earlier backed the republicans against Saudi influence, and it stayed entangled in the north's disputes. Yet the Hamdi regime in the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, became the most notorious for policies meant to shrink the Saudi role. His rule was short. A run of unrest, including the assassination of former presidents, brought Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh to the presidency of North Yemen.

  Saleh ruled for 33 years, and the unification of Yemen in 1990 was the defining event of his regime. The union was shaky, and a civil war broke out in 1994. Saleh won it, and the Republic of Yemen was then constitutionally established. He later sought constitutional amendments, hoping his son would take over. Strong opposition and protests pushed him out of office.

  A group called Friends of Yemen had been created, at first to stop al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP. Evidence had pointed to AQAP as the main culprit behind multiple attacks on US military bases and equipment. During the Arab Spring the group took on a larger role. The Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Nations had recommended that the management of Yemen's crisis be placed in the hands of global actors.

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• 3. Rise of the Houthis

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  Ansar Allah, popularly known as the Houthis, grew out of the mountainous Sa'dah Governorate on Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia. It is a Zaydi group. From the 1960s onward, after the end of Zaydi rule, Zaydis faced discrimination and Sunnification policies from Sunni-dominated governments. Salafis in Saada claimed al-Shawkani as an intellectual precursor. Later regimes upheld his Sunnization policies as a way to unify the country and undermine Zaydi Shi'ism.

  In 2004 the Houthis began a low-level insurgency against the government. Their leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, had been killed in a military crackdown that followed his protests against government policies. Through the 2000s the intensity rose and fell, and several peace agreements were negotiated and then disregarded. The insurgency heated up in 2009 and briefly drew Saudi Arabia to the government's side. A ceasefire the following year cooled it.

  In 2011, at the start of the Yemeni Revolution, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared support for demonstrators who wanted President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Later that year, as Saleh prepared to leave, the Houthis besieged Dammaj, a Salafi-majority village in the north. It was a step toward virtual autonomy for Sa'dah. They boycotted the single-candidate election in early 2012 meant to give Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi a two-year term. They joined the National Dialogue Conference but withheld support from its final accord in early 2014, which extended Hadi's mandate by another year. By mid-2014, fighting between the Houthis and Sunni tribes had spread to other governorates, including Sanaa Governorate.

  In September 2014, after several weeks of street protests against the Hadi administration, Houthi fighters took the capital, Sanaa. The group was angry about cuts to fuel subsidies. They fought Yemen Army forces under General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, and the battle lasted only a few days. Hadi then had to negotiate an agreement. The government resigned, and the Houthis gained an unprecedented level of influence over state institutions and politics.

  In January 2015, unhappy with a proposal to split the country into six federal regions, Houthi fighters seized the presidential compound in Sanaa. Hadi and his ministers resigned. On the 6th of February 2015, the Houthi leadership announced the dissolution of parliament and the formation of a Revolutionary Committee to govern. Ali Abdullah Saleh had been widely suspected of aiding the Houthis during the takeover. He now publicly denounced Hadi and called on him to go into exile. On the 21st of February, a month after being confined to his residence, Hadi slipped out of the capital and traveled to Aden. From his hometown he declared the Houthi takeover illegitimate and said he was still the constitutional president.

  On the 19th of March 2015, the Battle of Aden Airport pitted troops loyal to Hadi against those who refused to recognize his authority. The forces under General Abdul-Hafez al-Saqqaf were defeated, and he fled toward Sanaa. Warplanes reportedly flown by Houthi pilots then bombed Hadi's compound in Aden, apparently in retaliation. On the 20th of March, mosque bombings struck Sanaa. In a televised speech, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi called his group's decision to mobilize for war "imperative". He said the targets would be Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its affiliates, among whom he counts Hadi, rather than southern Yemen and its citizens. That same day, al-Qaeda militants captured the Al Houta District of Lahij, killed about 20 soldiers, and were driven out several hours later.

  On the 21st of March 2015, Hadi declared Aden Yemen's "economic and temporary capital" and promised to retake Sanaa. He said: "We will restore security to the country and hoist the flag of Yemen in Sanaa, instead of the Iranian flag." In Sanaa, the Houthi Revolutionary Committee named Major General Hussein Khairan as defence minister and put him in overall command of the offensive. The Houthi-led Supreme Revolutionary Committee declared a general mobilization the same day, aiming to overthrow Hadi and drive into the southern provinces. Fighting began the next day in Lahij, with forces loyal to Saleh fighting alongside the Houthis. Lahij fell by the 25th of March, and the Houthis reached the outskirts of Aden. Hadi left the country that same day.

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• 4. The Saudi-Led Campaign

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  On the 24th of March 2015, Houthi commander Ali al-Shami boasted that his forces would invade the larger kingdom and stop not at Mecca but at Riyadh. The following evening, Saudi Arabia began a military intervention at the request of Yemen's internationally recognized government. It acted alongside eight other Arab states: the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco and Sudan. In a joint statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, except Oman, said they were acting at Hadi's request. The United States also helped attack the Houthis, bombing positions throughout Sanaa. Saudi Arabia asked Pakistan to commit forces, but Pakistan's parliament voted to stay neutral. Pakistan instead sent warships to enforce an arms embargo on the Houthis, in line with a United Nations Security Council resolution.

  Within hours of the operation's start, King Salman declared the Royal Saudi Air Force to be in full control of Yemeni airspace. The strikes were meant to slow the Houthi advance toward Hadi's stronghold in the south. Al Jazeera reported that Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a commander appointed in February as President of the Revolutionary Committee, was injured by an airstrike in Sanaa on the first night. The operation was called Operation Decisive Storm. On the 21st of April 2015, the bombing campaign was officially declared over. Saudi officials said they would begin Operation Restoring Hope, a mix of political, diplomatic and military efforts. Airstrikes on Houthi targets continued anyway, and fighting went on in Aden and Ad Dali'.

  Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the United States, wrote an Op-Ed in The Washington Post about the Emirati role against AQAP. He said the intervention had pushed AQAP to its weakest point since 2012 and removed more than 2,000 militants from the battlefield. An Associated Press investigation told a different story. It said the coalition had reduced AQAP by offering deals and even recruiting fighters, because "they're considered exceptional fighters". UAE Brigadier General Musallam Al Rashidi replied that Al Qaeda cannot be reasoned with and had killed many of his soldiers. Pentagon spokesperson Robert Manning called the report "patently false". Faraj al-Bahsani, the governor of Hadramut, argued that if Al Qaeda had joined the coalition there would be sleeper cells, and he would be "the first one to be killed".

  In August 2020, 162 pages of confidential Saudi documents revealed the kingdom's strategy in Yemen. Some of the papers dated from before 2015. They showed that Saudi Arabia did not act to stop the Houthis from capturing Sanaa, despite reports from its own intelligence. They also showed that Saudi Arabia had worked to hamper rebuilding projects in Saada commissioned by Germany and Qatar, after a ceasefire halted the fighting there.

  In January 2016, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said that US and UK military officials sat in the command and control center for the airstrikes. He said they had access to the target list but did not choose the targets. The United States supplied intelligence and logistical support, including aerial refueling and search and rescue for downed coalition pilots. Amnesty International said the United Kingdom supplied weapons used by the coalition. It also said that a laser-guided bomb from the US firm Raytheon killed six civilians on the 28th of June 2019.

  In May 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced an "emergency" to push through $8.1 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Congress opposed the move. An August 2020 report by the Office of Inspector General found that Pompeo had met the legal prerequisites. It also noted that the risk to civilians had not been properly assessed. The same year, on the 13th of July 2020, the UK Ministry of Defence logged more than 500 Saudi air raids in possible breach of international law. This came days after Britain decided to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia, just over a year after the court of appeal ruled them unlawful.

  In March 2019, the US Congress voted to end support for the Saudi war effort, and President Donald Trump vetoed it. His successor, Joe Biden, announced a freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in January 2021. On the 4th of February 2021, Biden announced an end to US support for Saudi-led operations. By the 13th of April 2021, sales to the UAE had not stopped, and details of the end of American involvement were not released. In 2022 the Biden administration announced a sale of weapons to the coalition. In March 2025, the United States itself struck dozens of Houthi targets, beginning on the 15th of March, in the largest Middle East operation of Trump's second term. US officials said the aim was to end Houthi attacks on commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

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• 5. Iran and the Proxy Question

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  In April 2015, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: "It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen". That same month, Secretary of State John Kerry told PBS Newshour that Iran was trying to destabilize Yemen. Washington has regularly accused Tehran of arming and funding the Houthis. The Houthis and the Iranian government have denied any military affiliation. Yet supreme leader Ali Khamenei openly announced his "spiritual" support for the movement in 2019, during a meeting in Tehran with Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdul Salam.

  There has been no direct intervention by the Iranian government in Yemen. Even so, the civil war is widely regarded as part of an Iran-Saudi proxy conflict. The United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and various Western commentators accuse IRGC networks of supplying arms, training, logistics, strategic coordination and media support. Saudi Arabia sees the activities of the Quds Forces and Hezbollah in Yemen as an attempt to build a satellite state and trap the kingdom in a stalemate. Western commentators say Iranian policy aims at bases for ballistic missiles that could hit Gulf Cooperation Council countries. They also point to naval dominance in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and to cyberwarfare.

  Other analysts and academics dispute this picture and say the Houthis are independent of Iran. Professor Stephen Zunes argues that most Houthi arms come from the black market and non-Iranian sources. Then on the 7th of August 2018, the Fars News Agency quoted IRGC commander Nasser Shabani. He said: "We (IRGC) told Yemenis Houthi rebels to strike two Saudi oil tankers, and they did it".

  Eritrea has been accused of funneling Iranian material to the Houthis and of offering medical care to wounded fighters. It has called the allegations "groundless" and described the Yemeni crisis as "an internal matter". A secret United Nations document says North Korea aided the Houthis by selling weapons.

  In March 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had agreed to halt all military support to the Houthis and abide by the UN arms embargo. The pledge was part of a Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saudi and US officials called Iran's behavior a "litmus test" for the endurance of the détente. The deal came as Iran faced international isolation over its nuclear program, a crackdown on the Mahsa Amini protests, and its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Iran has kept up its military and logistical support to the Houthis.

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• 6. A Fractured South

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  The Southern Transitional Council, or STC, was formed in 2017, and its forces captured Aden in 2018. After that, the pro-republican camp fractured. Pro-Hadi forces backed by Saudi Arabia clashed regularly with southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. In November 2019, the Riyadh Agreement tried to settle the power struggle in the south with a power-sharing arrangement between the government and the STC.

  AQAP and the Islamic State have attacked both factions. AQAP controls swathes of territory in the hinterlands and along stretches of the coast. The Islamic State has proclaimed several provinces in Yemen and urged its followers to fight the Houthis and Zaydis in general, with bombings of mosques in Sanaa. On the 6th of October 2015, four coordinated suicide bombings in Aden struck the al-Qasr hotel, a headquarters for pro-Hadi officials, and military facilities. Fifteen soldiers allied with Hadi and the coalition died, 11 of them Yemeni and four from the UAE. Before the Islamic State claimed responsibility, UAE officials blamed the Houthis and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

  The United States has carried out targeted killings of Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen since the mid-2000s. It generally does not confirm specific drone attacks. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented 415 strikes in Pakistan and Yemen by 2015, with between 423 and 962 deaths believed to be civilians. Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell says the real numbers were significantly lower. In 2015, drone strikes near Mukalla killed two leading AQAP figures, Ibrahim al-Rubeish and Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi. Roughly 240 suspected AQAP militants have died in American drone strikes since the civil war began.

  On the 7th of April 2022, the Hadi government was dissolved. The Presidential Leadership Council took command of the Yemeni Republic and brought the STC into the new government.

  On the 2nd of December 2025, the STC launched an offensive with 10,000 fighters against government positions in Hadhramaut Governorate. It then spread into Al-Mahrah Governorate and other nearby areas. By the 8th of December, STC forces held nearly all the governorates that once made up South Yemen, plus Dhale. That included the whole southern coastline, the border region with Oman, and the Hadhramaut oil fields. By the 9th of December, they were estimated to control 90-95% of the populated areas in the former South Yemen and at least 80% of Yemen's proven oil reserves. Hadhramaut was the most valuable prize by far. The advance was seen as a major victory for the UAE and a setback for Saudi ambitions, since it could have prepared the ground for a declaration of secession. Saudi Arabia withdrew its remaining forces from Aden and Aden International Airport.

  Saudi Arabia demanded that the STC pull back, and from the 26th of December it struck STC positions. On the 30th of December 2025, the Saudi-backed government declared a 90-day state of emergency and canceled a joint defense agreement with the UAE. It ordered all remaining UAE forces to leave within 24 hours, and announced a temporary blockade of entry points. The Royal Saudi Air Force also struck the port of Mukalla, targeting what it said was a weapons shipment from the UAE. The UAE denied that the shipment held weapons. Later that day, the UAE announced it would withdraw its remaining counterterrorism personnel, ending its direct military presence in Yemen.

  On the 2nd of January 2026, government forces backed by Saudi airstrikes launched a counteroffensive. The STC announced plans for an independence referendum within two years. Government forces took Seiyun on the 3rd of January and Mukalla the following day. On the 7th of January they began entering Aden as STC resistance collapsed. STC leader Aidarus al-Zoubaidi was removed from the Presidential Council, charged with treason, and later fled to the UAE. On the 9th of January, the STC announced its dissolution. Meanwhile, the Houthis still control Sanaa and all of former North Yemen except eastern Marib Governorate.

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• 7. Counting the Cost

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  On the 8th of April 2015, CNN reported that almost 10,160,000 Yemenis were deprived of water, food and electricity. UNICEF said some 100,000 people had been displaced within 15 days. Oxfam said more than 10 million Yemenis lacked enough food, including 850,000 half-starved children. A medical aid boat brought 2.5 tonnes of medicine to Aden that day, and a UNICEF plane carrying 16 tonnes of supplies landed in Sanaa on the 10th of April.

  Foreign governments were meanwhile pulling their citizens out. India's Operation Raahat evacuated more than 4640 Indians and 960 foreign nationals of 41 countries. Sea evacuations from Aden ran until the 11th of April 2015, and air evacuations from Sanaa ended on the 9th of April. A Chinese missile frigate docked in Aden on the 29th of March, in the first operation of its kind by the Chinese military. More than 50,000 Ethiopians were reportedly living and working in Yemen when hostilities began.

  In March 2017, the World Food Program reported that 60% of Yemenis, or 17 million people, faced "crisis" or "emergency" food situations, though not yet full famine. A cholera epidemic resurfaced in June 2017, and by mid-June it was killing a person an hour. By the 24th of June 2017, UNICEF and WHO estimated more than 200,000 cases and 1,300 deaths. Between October 2016 and August 2019, over 2,036,960 suspected cholera cases and 3,716 related deaths were reported. In one tally, Houthi-controlled governorates accounted for 77.7% of cases and 80.7% of deaths. In 2018, the United Nations warned that 13 million Yemeni civilians faced starvation in what it said could become "the worst famine in the world in 100 years".

  The UN estimated that the war had caused about 230,000 deaths by December 2020. Of those, 130,000 came from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure. By the end of 2021, the UN put the toll at more than 377,000 lives, and 70% of those who died were children under five. Save the Children warned that an estimated 1,000 children a week were dying of preventable causes, including diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory infections.

  A 2019 UNICEF report found that two million children had dropped out of school since March 2015. The education of another 3.7 million was at risk because teachers had not been paid since 2017. Children were also pulled into the fighting. In August 2018, the UN reported that two-thirds of child soldiers in Yemen fought for the Houthis, with 800 cases documented in 2017. In January 2022, the UN reported that 1,406 child soldiers recruited by the Houthis had died on the battlefield in 2020.

  More than 500,000 mines are estimated to have been laid by Houthi forces. Many civilians lose legs or eyes when they step on them. The pro-Hadi army removed 300,000 mines in recaptured areas, including 40,000 on the outskirts of Marib province. Between March 2015 and December 2018, more than 4,600 civilians were killed by coalition airstrikes. Factories also shut down, and the prices of food and medicine climbed beyond what many could afford.

  In August 2018, a report by UN experts said all parties to the conflict may have committed war crimes. It documented 6,475 deaths but said the true figure was significantly higher. The United Nations described the conflict as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. A May 2020 report by the Yemeni rights group Mwatana documented, since May 2016, more than 1,600 arbitrary detentions, 770 forced disappearances, 344 cases of torture and at least 66 deaths in unofficial prisons. It blamed the Houthis for most of the abuses.

  On the 29th of March 2021, Houthi authorities deported the last remaining Yemenite Jews to Egypt. That ended the continuous presence of a community that dated back to antiquity.

  By June 2020, the UNHCR said that more than 3.6 million people had been forced from their homes and 24 million needed aid. Only US$63 million had arrived of the at least US$211.9 million needed to run its operations that year.

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• 8. Attempts at Peace

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  The Peace and National Partnership Agreement of 2014 was the United Nations' last attempt to quell the dispute before it became a war. On the 22nd of March 2015, the UN recognized Hadi as the sole legitimate president and urged a peaceful resolution. On the 14th of April 2015, the Security Council adopted a resolution that placed sanctions on Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and Ahmed Ali Saleh. It also set an arms embargo on the Houthis and called on them to withdraw from Sanaa and other seized areas. The Houthis condemned the resolution and called for mass protests. The next day, Jamal Benomar resigned as UN envoy. He had brokered the deal that ended Saleh's presidency during the 2011-12 revolution. On the 25th of April, the Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, formerly head of the UN Ebola response mission, was confirmed as his successor.

  In December 2018, talks in Sweden produced the Stockholm Agreement, made up of three documents. The first proposed a committee. The second called for an exchange of prisoners. The third created the United Nations Mission to support the al-Hodeida Agreement. The parties agreed to a ceasefire in the strategic port city of Hodeida. The UN also began using its jets to carry wounded Houthi fighters from Sanaa to Oman, clearing the way for the talks. Yet offensives by the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition clashed with the plan and deepened the humanitarian crisis.

  On the 27th of September 2020, the UN announced that the Houthis and the Hadi government had agreed to swap about 1,081 detainees and prisoners. The deal freed 681 rebels and 400 government fighters, among them fifteen Saudis and four Sudanese. It was finalized after a week-long meeting in Glion, Switzerland, co-chaired by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.

  The UN brokered a two-month nationwide truce on the 2nd of April 2022. It allowed fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and let some flights operate from Sanaa International Airport to Jordan and Egypt. On the 2nd of June 2022, the UN announced a further two-month extension. On the 23rd of December 2023, UN special envoy Hans Grundberg announced that the warring parties had committed to steps toward a ceasefire.

  On the 14th of May 2026, after 14 weeks of negotiations in Amman, Jordan, both governments signed a deal to release nearly 1,700 detainees. It was the largest prisoner swap in the war's history. The Houthi head of the Prisoner's Affairs committee said 1,100 of the detainees were Houthi-affiliated. The remaining 580 from the other side included seven Saudis and 20 Sudanese nationals. The International Committee of the Red Cross was chosen to carry out the repatriation for both sides. That same organization had pulled 71 international staff out of Yemen in June 2018, leaving some 450 employees in the country.

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