40 Middle East & Africa The EconomistFebruary 8th 2020
T
he warin Yemen escalated last month
when a missile hit a mosque at a mili-
tary training camp near Marib, killing over
100 soldiers. The government blamed the
Houthi rebels, who control much of the
country (see map). Fierce fighting broke
out in the days that followed, with the Sau-
di-led coalition that backs the government
striking rebel-held territory from the air.
The Houthis, in turn, fired rockets at tar-
gets inside Saudi Arabia.
Before the flare-up the conflict ap-
peared to be winding down. The govern-
ment and the rebels are mulling unpro-
posals to share power and allow the
president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to re-
turn from exile. Saudi Arabia has carried
out fewer air strikes since October. It now
seems less concerned with restoring the
government-in-exile to the capital, Sana’a,
than with reaching an agreement that safe-
guards its borders from Houthi attacks.
The Houthis (who prefer to call them-
selves Ansar Allah, or the Partisans of God)
are “behaving like they’ve already won”,
says an international official in Yemen.
After five years of fighting more powerful
armies, they still control land on which
70% of Yemen’s 30m people live. Now they
are consolidating their grip and establish-
ing a state modelled on the theocracy in
Iran, which arms them.
The Houthis belong to a small branch of
Shiism called Zaydism, which is closer to
Sunnism than most other branches. For de-
cades Saudi missionaries crossed into
Saada, the Houthis’ home province, con-
verting Zaydis into Sunnis. But Abdel-Ma-
lik al-Houthi, the 41-year-old leader of the
rebels, has tried to stem Saudi influence
and has embellished Zaydism with sym-
bols of Shia resistance. The Houthis’ flag,
like that of Hizbullah, the Lebanese armed
movement backed by Iran, features a
clenched fist, a Kalashnikov and the words
“Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
After taking control of Sana’a in 2014,
the Houthis shared power with Ali Abdul-
lah Saleh, Yemen’s ex-dictator. But in 2017
they killed him, purged his loyalists and
monopolised the state. They appointed
mushrifeen, or supervisors, at every level of
government. On Wednesday afternoons
civil servants, university lecturers and po-
licemen must attend dourat thiqafiya, or
cultural sessions, where they swear alle-
giance to Mr Houthi. (The least convincing
are sent to indoctrination camps.) The re-bels have preserved parliament and the
army, but created a parallel tier of govern-
ment which wields ultimate power. The
Supreme Political Council runs day-to-day
affairs and a new security force acts as the
regime’s Praetorian guard. Mr Houthi has
adopted the title of wali al-alam, which
loosely translates as supreme leader.
Sana’a is changing under Houthi rule.
The rebels have closed cafés where men
and women once mixed. They have ordered
private primary schools to segregate boys
and girls (public ones already did). Austerefighters back from the front enforce the
new rules. The city increasingly resembles
Baghdad or parts of Beirut run by Hizbul-
lah, say visitors. Huge billboards honour-
ing “martyrs” loom over its thoroughfares.
Schools have been infused with anti-West-
ern thought. “The trajectory is towards a
Zaydi version of the Taliban,” says Abdul-
Ghani al-Iryani, a Yemeni analyst.
The Houthis say they are leading a Zaydi
revival, but they are also changing the way
Zaydism is practised, bringing it more in
line with mainstream Shiism. They have
opened husseiniyas, halls to mourn the Pro-
phet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, and
organised large marches for Ashura and
Eid al-Ghadir, holidays ostentatiously
marked by Shias elsewhere. Unlike in the
past, they adorn the capital with green and
black flags and splash green paint on cars
to mark the Prophet’s birthday.
Many northern Yemenis initially
backed the Houthis in their struggle
against the government. The group’s anti-
Saudi rhetoric and appeals for resistance
echoed past calls to combat Sunni empires,
such as the Ottomans, that attacked from
the north. But as the Houthis’ rule has
grown more predatory and paranoid, peo-
ple appear increasingly unhappy.
Some predict that the Houthis will relax
once the war subsides. But even if the Sau-
dis retreat, the fighting may not stop. Ye-
men’s civil war is now multi-sided, with
several groups vying for control of parts of
the country. Last month America reported-
ly launched an (unsuccessful) air strike on
a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary
Guard Corps inside Houthi territory. Mr
Houthi, for his part, says he is leading a
massira quraniya, or Koranic march. His
followers say he will next take Islam’s holi-
est cities—Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem—
from the infidels and their lackeys. 7It looks a lot like that of IranYemen and IranThe Houthi model of government
HodeidaAreacontrolledbyHouthis
February5th 2020AdenSana’aERITREARed YEMEN
SeaGulfofAdenSparsely
populatedSAUDI
ARABIADJIBOUTIDhamarMaribSaada200 kmMuslim population
By density, 2017Sources: Dr M. Izady,Columbia
University; Liveuamap.com *ZaydiHighLow Shia* Sunni MixedRebels yelling