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Who are the Houthis and why are they attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea?

2024-01-12 08:51:21Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Who are the Houthis and why are they attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea?

The US and British military have launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

They mark an important response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the brunt of repeated drone and missile attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.

Here's what we know about the Houthis and why they're fighting.

Who are the Houthis? The Houthi movement, also known as Ansarallah (Supporters of God), is one side of Yemen's civil war that has raged for nearly a decade. It emerged in the 1990s, when its leader, Hussein al-Houthi, launched the Faithful Youth, a religious revival movement for a centuries-old subsect of Shia Islam called Zaidism. The Zaydis ruled Yemen for centuries, but were marginalized under the Sunni regime that came to power after the civil war of 1962. The Al-Houthi movement was founded to represent the Zaydis and resist radical Sunnism, especially Wahhabi ideas from Saudi Arabia. His closest followers became known as the Houthis.

How did they gain power? Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's first president after the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, initially supported the Faithful Youth. But as the movement's popularity grew and anti-government rhetoric sharpened, it became a threat to Saleh. Things came to a head in 2003, when Saleh supported the United States' invasion of Iraq, which many Yemenis opposed. For al-Houthi, division was an opportunity. Capturing public anger, he organized mass demonstrations. After months of unrest, Saleh issued a warrant for his arrest. Al-Houthi was killed in September 2004 by Yemeni forces, but his movement continued. The Houthi military wing grew as more fighters joined the cause. Encouraged by early Arab Spring protests in 2011, they seized control of the northern province of Saada and called for the end of Saleh's regime.

Why do the Houthis attack ships in the Red Sea? While, through a combination of geography and technology, the Houthis may lack the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah, their attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea could cause a different kind of pain to Israel and its allies. Attacks could force ships to take a much longer route around Africa and cause increased insurance costs. Companies can pass on the increased cost of moving their goods to consumers, raising prices again at a time when governments around the world have struggled to tame post-pandemic inflation. The Houthi attacks may be aimed at inflicting economic pain on Israel's allies in the hope that they will pressure it to end its bombing of the enclave. Championing the Palestinian cause may also be an attempt to gain legitimacy in the country and in the region as they seek to control northern Yemen. It could also give them an upper hand against their Arab adversaries, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whom they accuse of being lackeys of the US and Israel.


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