The Yemeni civil war (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اليمنية, romanized: al-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah al-yamanīyah) is an ongoing multilateral civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Rashad al-Alimi-led Presidential Leadership Council and the Mahdi al-Mashat-led Supreme Political Council, along with their respective supporters and allies. Both sides claim to constitute the official government of Yemen while the Presidential Leadership Council is recognized by the United Nations as the official government.
The civil war began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sanaa, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government. On 21 March 2015, the Houthi-led Supreme Revolutionary Committee declared a general mobilization to overthrow then-president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and expand their control by driving into southern provinces. The Houthi offensive, allied with military forces loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, began fighting the next day in Lahij Governorate. By 25 March, Lahij fell to the Houthis and they reached the outskirts of Aden, the seat of power for Hadi's government. Hadi fled the country the same day. Concurrently, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations by using air strikes and restored the former Yemeni government. Although there has been no direct intervention by the Iranian government in Yemen, the civil war is widely regarded as part of the Iran–Saudi proxy conflict.
Houthi insurgents currently control the capital Sanaa and all of former North Yemen except for eastern Marib Governorate. After the formation of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in 2017 and the subsequent capture of Aden by the STC forces in 2018, the pro-republican forces became fractured, with regular clashes between pro-Hadi forces backed by Saudi Arabia and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State have also carried out attacks against both factions, with AQAP controlling swathes of territory in the hinterlands, and along stretches of the coast.
The UN brokered a two-month nationwide truce on 2 April 2022 between Yemen's warring parties, which allowed fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and some flights to operate from Sanaa International Airport to Jordan and Egypt. On 7 April 2022, the Hadi government was dissolved and the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) took command of the Yemeni Republic, incorporating the Southern Transitional Council into its new government. The UN announced on 2 June 2022 that the nationwide truce had been further extended by two months. According to the UN, over 150,000 people have been killed in Yemen, as well as estimates of more than 227,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine and lack of healthcare facilities due to the war. The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2023 that Iran agreed to halt all military support to the Houthis and abide by the UN arms embargo, as part of a Chinese-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement deal. The agreement is viewed as part of Saudi Arabian-led efforts to pressure the Houthi militants to end the conflict through negotiated settlement; with Saudi and U.S. officials describing the concomitant Iranian behaviour as a "litmus test" for the endurance of the Chinese-brokered détente. Since then, however, Iran has maintained military and logistical support for the Houthis. On 23 December 2023, Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, announced that the warring parties had committed to steps towards a ceasefire. In September and October 2026, as part of the increase in regional conflict following the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, the ceasefire collapsed and war resumed between the PLC and the Houthis.
The Saudi-led coalition's bombing of civilian areas has received condemnation from the international community. According to the Yemen Data Project, the bombing campaign has killed or injured an estimated 19,196 civilians as of March 2022. Houthi drone attacks targeting civilian areas in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Southern Yemen have also attracted global condemnation; and the UN Security Council has imposed a global arms embargo on the Houthis since 2015. The United States has provided intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi Arabian-led campaign, and despite an earlier pledge to withdraw U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, the Biden administration announced in 2022 the sale of weapons to the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.
Historical context
Islam in Yemen predominantly takes the forms of Sunni and Shia Islam. Among the Shia, the Ismaili and Zaydi sects historically competed for influence. Following the fall of the Ismaili states ruled by the Hamdan tribe in the 11th century, the Ayyubid expansion led to the majority of the Hamdan tribe converting to Zaydism, a Shia sect.
During the Rasulid period (1229 to 1454), Shafi'i Sunni Islam gained popularity in Yemen. Over time, the Zaydis in the north and the Rasulid rulers in the south competed for dominance. This rivalry diminished following the decline of Rasulid rule and the increasing involvement of imperial powers, including the Ottoman Empire.
The defeat of the Ottomans in the First World War eventually brought about the first (incomplete) unification of Yemen. This became possible during the rule of the Hamid al-Din dynasty under Imam Yahya (r. 1918–1948) and his son Ahmad bin Yahya (r. 1948–1962). The unification also meant the establishment of a hierarchy within which Zaydis had authoritative power over Sunnis. As a consequence, the difference in status became institutionalized and normalized. The Hamid al-Din dynasty faced discontent among the Zaydis due to non-conformity to Zaydi traditions; the dynasty came to an end with the overthrow of Imam Yahya's grandson, Imam Badr, in 1962. There followed a civil war (1962 to 1970) in which republicans opposed the royalists. Helen Lackner explains that such a division was not ideological; it was based on past feuds. Nonetheless, external powers like Saudi Arabia intervened for ideological motives: the Saudis sought to maintain the monarchical system to which they adhered themselves. Despite Saudi Arabia's original intentions, in 1970, the republican form was retained.
While these developments took place in the North, liberation movements against British presence in Aden Colony and the Aden Protectorate broke out, resulting to the formation in 1967 of a socialist state, (and hence a Soviet ally) in the Southern Arabian region. It became known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) from 1970.
The PDRY was involved in the internal disputes of its northern counterpart. It had previously supported the republicans in fighting off Saudi Arabia's influence, but it was the Hamdi regime (1974 to 1977) in the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) that was most notorious for its policies that aimed to reduce Saudi presence in Yemeni politics. Hamdi's rule was, nonetheless, short-lived. A period of political unrest marked by the assassination of former presidents led to Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh's rise to the presidency of the Yemen Arab Republic. Saleh's rule lasted for 33 years, from 1978 until 2012. The major event that marked his regime was the unification of Yemen in 1990. His attempt was not entirely successful as a civil war broke out in 1994. However, he was able to come out of it victorious. The Republic of Yemen became constitutionally established in 1991.
Saleh tried to maintain his position through constitutional amendments, hoping for his son to take over, but strong opposition and protests pressured him out of office by 2012. Meanwhile, the group "Friends of Yemen" was created, initially to stop al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) after evidence pointed at it as the main perpetrator behind multiple attacks on US military bases and equipment. The "Friends of Yemen" group became more involved in Yemen during the Arab Spring of 2010 to 2012, after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and United Nations recommended putting the management of Yemen's "crisis" into the hands of global actors.
The Houthis
After the end of their rule, from the 1960s onwards, Zaydis faced discrimination and Sunnification policies from the consequent Sunni dominated governments. For example, Salafis in Saada claimed al-Shawkani as an intellectual precursor, and future Yemeni regimes would uphold his Sunnization policies as a unifier of the country and to undermine Zaydi Shi'ism.
Ansar Allah (sometimes Anglicised as Ansarullah), known popularly as the Houthis, is a Zaydi group with its origins in the mountainous Sa'dah Governorate on Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia. They led a low-level insurgency against the Yemeni government in 2004 after their leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, was killed in a government military crackdown following his protests against government policies.
The intensity of the conflict waxed and waned over the course of the 2000s, with multiple peace agreements being negotiated and later disregarded. The Houthi insurgency heated up in 2009, briefly drawing neighboring Saudi Arabia to the side of the Yemeni government, but cooled the following year after a ceasefire was signed.
Then during the early stages of the Yemeni Revolution in 2011, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared the group's support for demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Later that year, as Saleh prepared to leave office, the Houthis laid siege to the Salafi-majority village of Dammaj in northern Yemen, a step toward attaining virtual autonomy for Sa'dah.
The Houthis boycotted a single-candidate election in early 2012 meant to give Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi a two-year term of office. They participated in a National Dialogue Conference, but withheld support from a final accord in early 2014 that extended Hadi's mandate in office for another year.
Conflict between the Houthis and Sunni tribes in northern Yemen spread to other governorates, including the Sanaa Governorate by mid-2014.
Course of the conflict
Beginning of the conflict (2014–2015)
After several weeks of street protests against the Hadi administration, which made cuts to fuel subsidies that were unpopular with the group, the Houthis fought the Yemen Army forces under the command of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar. In a battle that lasted only a few days, Houthi fighters seized control of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, in September 2014. The Houthis forced President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to negotiate an agreement to end the violence, in which 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. The power play prompted the resignation of President Hadi and his ministers. The Houthi political leadership then announced the dissolution of parliament and the formation of a Revolutionary Committee to govern the country on 6 February 2015.
On 21 February, one month after Houthi militants confined Hadi to his residence in Sanaa, he slipped out of the capital and traveled to Aden. In a televised address from his hometown, he declared that the Houthi takeover was illegitimate and indicated he remained the constitutional president of Yemen. His predecessor as president, Ali Abdullah Saleh—who had been widely suspected of aiding the Houthis during their takeover of Sanaa the previous year—publicly denounced Hadi and called on him to go into exile.
On 19 March 2015, troops loyal to Hadi clashed with those who refused to recognize his authority in the Battle of Aden Airport. The forces under General Abdul-Hafez al-Saqqaf were defeated, and al-Saqqaf fled toward Sanaa. In apparent retaliation for the routing of al-Saqqaf, warplanes reportedly flown by Houthi pilots bombed Hadi's compound in Aden.
After the 20 March 2015 Sanaa mosque bombings, in a televised speech, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis, said his group's decision to mobilize for war was "imperative" under current circumstances and that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its affiliates—among whom he counts Hadi—would be targeted, as opposed to southern Yemen and its citizens. President Hadi declared Aden to be Yemen's temporary capital while Sanaa remained under Houthi control.
Also, the same day as the mosque bombings, al-Qaeda militants captured the provincial capital of Lahij, Al Houta District after killing about 20 soldiers before being driven out several hours later.
Hadi reiterated in a speech on 21 March 2015 that he was the legitimate president of Yemen and declared, "We will restore security to the country and hoist the flag of Yemen in Sanaa, instead of the Iranian flag." He also declared Aden to be Yemen's "economic and temporary capital" due to the Houthi occupation of Sanaa, which he pledged would be retaken.
In Sanaa, the Houthi Revolutionary Committee appointed Major General Hussein Khairan as Yemen's new defence minister and placed him in overall command of the military offensive.
2025–2026
STC offensive and PLC counter-offensive
On 2 December 2025, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) launched a large-scale offensive with a force of 10,000 fighters against Yemeni government positions in the Hadhramaut Governorate, eventually expanding into the Al-Mahrah Governorate and other adjacent governorates. By 8 December, STC forces had seized control of nearly all the governorates that were once part of South Yemen, in addition to Dhale Governorate, including the entire southern coastline of Yemen, the border region with Oman, and the oil fields in Hadhramaut Governorate. The STC claimed control over all 8 governorates by 9 December. By 9 December, STC forces were estimated to control 90–95% of the populated areas in the former South Yemen, in addition to holding at least 80% of Yemen's proven oil reserves. Of all the regions seized by the STC, the Hadhramaut Governorate was the most strategically valuable one by far. This was seen as marking a major victory for the UAE, and a significant setback for Saudi ambitions in the region, as it could have provided the conditions for the STC eventually declaring the secession of southern Yemen.
During the offensive, Saudi Arabia withdrew its remaining forces from Aden and Aden International Airport.
Tensions escalated further in late December. Saudi Arabia demanded STC withdrawal from the seized territories and conducted airstrikes on STC positions starting 26 December, including reported strikes in Wadi Nahb (Hadhramaut) and later on a port shipment in Mukalla alleged to contain UAE-supplied weapons. On 30 December 2025, the PLC government, backed by Saudi Arabia, declared a 90-day state of emergency across Yemen, canceled a joint defense agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ordered the withdrawal of all remaining UAE forces within 24 hours, and imposed a temporary blockade on entry points. The UAE subsequently announced the full withdrawal of its remaining counterterrorism personnel from Yemen, effectively ending its direct military presence and marking a de facto removal from the Saudi-led coalition's operations in the country.
On 30 December, the Royal Saudi Air Force carried out airstrikes on the STC-controlled port city of Mukalla, targeting what it said was a shipment of weapons that had arrived from the UAE. The UAE denied that the shipments contained weapons. Shortly afterward, the internationally recognized Yemeni government ordered all UAE forces to leave Yemeni territory within 24 hours, announced a 72-hour air, land, and sea blockade, and declared a 90-day state of emergency. Later that day, the UAE announced it would voluntarily withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen following the Saudi strikes.