Houthis and Saudis: When the weak strike back, by Owei Lakemfa

Ears across the globe have been virtually blocked since September 14, 2026, with news of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including its fuel pipeline and military infrastructure. The news outlets are jammed with stories of alleged Houthi aggression. These one-sided stories, some of which I will try to debunk here, portray Saudi Arabia as the victim. In truth, the Saudis are the aggressors who, since March 26, 2015, have been bombing the Yemenis, whom the dominant media prefer to call the Houthis. While the Houthis are the main population in Yemen, there are other groups who are in the anti-Saudi coalition fighting for the freedom of their country.

The Saudis have been at their bestial best in executing and bombing the Yemenis in their homeland. In my December 1, 2017 column titled ‘Is Saudi Arabia also among the terrorists?’ I reported: “Everything is game to the Saudi bombers, which first obliterated schools and hospitals, then turned their fury on all gatherings – markets, weddings, even funerals. It also imposed a blockade. Over 12,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed. 3.3 million children and nursing mothers are suffering from acute malnutrition, and cholera is rampant, yet Saudi Arabia and its allies will not relent. The cemeteries are overflowing so much that a good foreign investment in Yemen would be the building of new cemeteries.” That was nine years ago! So how can the Yemenis, fighting in self-defence, be termed the aggressors?

But why has the world been silent about the genocide against the Yemenis? It is because Saudi Arabia is not alone. The popular mass revolt which removed the Yemeni regime in 2014 was seen by Sunni-dominated countries as an attempt by the majority Yemeni Shiites to lord it over the country. So when the Hadi regime was defeated, Saudi Arabia, which rejected the new government in Sanaa, cobbled together a military force to stop the Houthi-led Yemeni armed forces from completely taking over the country. The invading countries included Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and three African countries: Sudan, Egypt and Morocco. But the UAE went completely rogue by using the opportunity to seize some Yemeni islands like Socotra, seaports and airports, and declaring them Emirati territories. Also, the international media makes the false narrative that the defeated Hadi regime is the “internationally recognised government” of Yemen. That ghost “government”, which now calls itself the ‘Presidential Leadership Council’ under Rashad al-Alimi, simply disappeared when the Yemenis last week swept through the rest of the country, taking the Red Sea and the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands.

There is yet another misleading speculation: whether the United States (US) will be neutral or support Saudi Arabia against the Yemenis. The impression being given is that the US has not been involved in the Yemeni war. The truth is that the US has, since 2015, militarily supported the Saudis in their attacks against Yemen. The last major US military strikes against the Houthi-led Yemeni people was in March 2025, in which they killed 153 civilians and wounded 243. The victims included children and women. But this week, the US did not rush to the aid of Saudi Arabia, perhaps because its hands are full with its war in Iran. Also, the US mid-term elections are due in November, and many Americans are weary of fighting wars. The US news site Axios reported that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has twice called US President Donald Trump to militarily intervene, and twice, Trump declined. Rather, the US has sought to cut a separate deal with the Houthi group, asking it not to attack its vessels in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is newly captured by Yemen. American officials were so desperate that they held open talks with the Houthis in the American embassy in Muscat, Oman.

The rattled Saudis turned to France, Britain, Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt to help them check Yemeni bombings against their cities and infrastructure. The Saudis, realising that their main routes to move out oil – the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz – might be closing up, are trying to blackmail Western Europe to intervene on its behalf by stopping oil sales to it. Yemen is an old civilisation of some seven thousand years, with its people spread across many countries, including Nigeria. In Lagos, they are reputed to have spread Islam and blended into the local population. 

The on-going war in Yemen began in 2010, after the Houthis had been excluded for decades from governance by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled for thirty-three years. The fear was that if they were allowed to participate in elections, they would sweep the polls.

So, the Houthis decided to take on the Saleh regime by leading the rest of the populace in street protests. The attempts to suppress these led to armed conflicts in which the government was defeated. But rather than fully surrender, Saleh organised a so-called single-candidate election and handed over power to his deputy, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The latter then tried to run the country the old way, and the Houthis, this time with the assistance of former President Saleh and the faction of the Yemeni armed forces still loyal to him, took on the Hadi government and defeated it on January 20, 2015. Although President Hadi was in the Presidential Palace when the Houthis seized it, they did not harm him. Later, he fled the capital, Sanaa, and headed south, where the Saudi military coalition proclaimed the former president the head of its “internationally recognised government”. He passed at 80 in Riyadh on May 28, 2026. Saleh had also tried to change sides again but was killed on December 4, 2017, in clashes with the Houthis.

Although the Yemeni government has proved a formidable force capable of taking on Saudi Arabia, the question is whether it can defend the vast territories it now controls. This is given the fact that its fifteen-year battles have mainly been guerrilla warfare. Ali al-Dahab, a Yemeni military and strategic security expert, explained this situation on Al Jazeera: “The Houthis’ military doctrine is primarily based on guerrilla warfare, and the necessary tactics related to adapting to the terrain. They compensate for their weakness in the coastal areas by ascending to mountainous areas and controlling them, and setting up firing positions to defend these coastal areas.” On the other hand, the Saudis have the option of making peace with their neighbour and allowing Yemenis to exercise sovereignty over their country. But if they decide to fight, they may find that, as Vietnam and Afghanistan turned out to be graveyards for the US, so will Yemen become a mass grave for them.

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