What About the Houthis?
20th April 2026
The Houthis in Yemen have generated a lot of news headlines since the Gaza war began, lobbing missiles into Israel and causing serious problems for international maritime traffic by attacking ships transiting the Bab-el-Mandeb off southern Yemen.
The Houthis (whose official name is now Ansar Allah) are a Shi’ite movement backed by Iran. They came into prominence during the Yemeni Revolution in 2011, which was an adjunct of the “Arab Spring” that had already swept Tunisia and Egypt. Their principal Sunni rivals within the radical Islamic ferment in Yemen were Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
With assistance from Iran, the Houthis took over about a third of Yemeni territory, including the capital, Sana’a. Their stronghold is in southern Yemen, adjacent to the Red Sea, which is why they have been able to do so much damage to ships travelling to or from the Suez Canal.
The Houthis have been receiving both weaponry and financial help from Iran. Now that the mullahs are on the ropes, I would expect that the mujahideen of Ansar Allah are facing lean times. I wondered how things were going for them, so I looked up some recent articles from the region.
Sure enough, the events of the past month have created a deficit of resources for the Houthi, which has contributed to internal strife among factions within the group.