This footage was filmed and produced 13 January 2024.

Yemen’s short history, barely over 30 years old, cannot be understood if the influence of the Houthis, the rebel group that currently controls the eastern part of the country (and its capital, Sana'a) and that it has been the target of US and UK bombings for its attacks on oil tankers bound for Israel in the Red Sea.

Houthis are born as a political and armed insurgent group that was born in northern Yemen in the 1990s. It is a Shiite group (one of the branches of Islam) zaidi (one of the branches of Shiism) that at first had as its reason the constitution of an organization opposed to the first Yemeni president, Ali Abdala Sale, for his dictatorial drift and the corruption of the system.

Founded by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, the Houthi movement also had a second motivation: opposition to the Yemeni regime’s proximity to Saudi Arabia and the United States. In fact, his slogan, years after his creation, would be "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse to the Jews and victory of Islam".

With the introduction of youth camps, the Houthi were gradually gaining popularity in Yemen, to the extent that Al-Houthi became a government target in 2004, date on which demonstrations against the regime took place with slogans launched by members of Juventud Creyente, an organization under the protection of the Houthis. Al Houthi was assassinated that same year by government forces, but by then the Houthis had consolidated themselves as an opposition group of some influence in the north of the country.

After Hussein’s assassination, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi took over and in the following years the group was able to withstand attacks from the Yemeni army and Saudi Arabia. In fact, in 2011 with the beginning of the Arab Spring the Houthis played an important role in organizing protests against the Sale regime, which left the country and power after the uprisings.
After years of growing opposition to the regime in which they faced Sunni tribes in the north of the country, the Houthis began a rebellion that started the Yemeni Civil War and managed to take the presidential palace of Sana'a in January 2015. From then on, a now entrenched struggle was fought between Houthi and government loyalists, backed by an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia but supported by the US and local actors such as the Arab League. An intricate panorama to which, in addition, the attacks of Islamic State and Al Qaeda were added.

SHOTLIST:
1. Various clashes between Huties and pro-government forces (August-November 2021);
2. Several military parade in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, shortly after the peace talks with Saudi Arabia (22 September 2023);
3. Several demonstrations following US and British air strikes (13 January 2024).