# Yemeni Civil War The **Yemeni Civil War** began in September 2014, when the [[Houthis]], a northern armed movement aligned with [[Iran]], seized the capital, Sanaa. [[Saudi Arabia]] led a coalition into the war in March 2015 to restore the government the Houthis had driven out. Eleven years later the Houthis still hold the capital and most of the population. The UN estimated 377,000 deaths from fighting, hunger and disease by the end of 2021. A truce held from April 2022 until September 2026, when the war resumed at full scale as a front of the [[Iran War 2026]]. > [!note] Related pages > The Houthis' weapons, leadership and Red Sea campaign are at [[Houthis]]. The country is at [[Yemen]]. The southern separatists are at [[Southern Transitional Council]], and the quarrel between the coalition's two leaders is at [[Saudi-Emirati Rivalry]]. ## The sides | Side | Holds | Backer | |---|---|---| | [[Houthis]] (Ansar Allah) | Sanaa, the northern highlands and, since September 2026, the whole Red Sea coast | Iran, through the [[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]] | | The recognized government, led since 2022 by an eight-member Presidential Leadership Council under Rashad al-Alimi | Aden, Marib and the east | Saudi Arabia | | Southern separatists: the [[Southern Transitional Council]] and units such as the Giants Brigades | Formerly Aden and much of the south | The [[United Arab Emirates]] | The second and third sides are nominally one. The separatists fought the government in 2019, joined it in 2022 and fought it again in December 2025. Since October 2026 some of their units are again being paid to fight the Houthis alongside it. ## Course of the war | Date | Event | |---|---| | 1990 | North and South Yemen merge into one state; southern separatism never fully fades | | 2011–2012 | An [[Arab Spring]] uprising ends the long rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh; his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, takes over under a Gulf-brokered deal | | Sep 2014 | The Houthis, allied with Saleh's loyalists, seize Sanaa | | Jan–Mar 2015 | The Houthis take the presidential palace; Hadi flees to Aden and then Riyadh | | Mar 26, 2015 | A Saudi-led coalition begins bombing. Emirati troops and the southern fighters they train push the Houthis out of Aden that summer | | Dec 2017 | The Houthis kill Saleh after he breaks with them | | Dec 2018 | The UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement halts the battle for the port of Hodeidah | | 2019 | The Emirates withdraws most of its troops. In August its separatist allies seize Aden from the government; the Riyadh Agreement of November 5 papers over the split | | Apr 2022 | A UN truce takes hold. Hadi hands power to the Presidential Leadership Council, which includes the separatists | | Nov 2023–2025 | The Houthis attack Red Sea shipping; the United States bombs them in 2025 (see [[Houthis]] and [[Hegseth Signalgate]]) | | Early Dec 2025 | The separatists seize Hadramawt and al-Mahra, on the Saudi border | | Dec 30, 2025 | Saudi jets bomb an Emirati arms shipment at Mukalla; the Emirates leaves Yemen | | Jan 2026 | Saudi-backed forces retake the south, including Aden. The separatist leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, is charged with treason and flees to Abu Dhabi | | Sep 3–11, 2026 | The Houthis launch an offensive in Taiz and take Mocha and the rest of the Red Sea coast down to the [[Bab el-Mandeb]] | | Early Oct 2026 | The Houthis cut the road from Aden to Taiz, encircling Yemen's third-largest city. On October 5 the government announces a counteroffensive, Operation Dawn of Yemen, with Saudi air support | | Oct 17, 2026 | The Emirates agrees to resume paying southern units, *The Guardian* reports | | Nov 2, 2026 | Houthi forces reach within 80 kilometers of Aden, the closest since 2015, military sources tell Reuters | ## Autumn 2026 The truce is gone on every front. In the west the Houthis hold the coast and the strait. In the center they have besieged Taiz since early October; its governor declared a famine in late October, according to *Democracy Now*. In the south they are pushing down the Taiz road toward Aden, where missile attacks on the airport and government buildings led the cabinet to suspend its meetings. In the northeast the government says it has taken the al-Dahida mountain range in al-Jawf. The war has also crossed the border in both directions. Houthi missiles and drones have hit Saudi airports and oil facilities, and Saudi aircraft have resumed heavy bombing of Houthi-held Yemen. Houthi-run media said Saudi strikes on the Bani Hushaysh district near Sanaa on November 7 killed at least 40 people, most of them women and children. Casualty figures on both sides come almost entirely from the warring parties. Saudi Arabia has looked for help beyond the Gulf. It signed a mutual-defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan in Mecca on August 7, 2026, and has since asked both, and Egypt, for defensive support against Houthi strikes. ## The toll - **Dead:** an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, by the UN's count, more than half from indirect causes such as hunger and disease. - **Displaced:** about 4.5 million. - **Hunger:** about three-quarters of households could not meet basic daily food needs in autumn 2026, according to the UN. ## The United States Washington armed and supported the Saudi-led coalition from 2015, bombed the Houthis itself in 2025, and in 2026 has more than 100 military advisers in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting support, CNN reported in September. Axios reported that month that the Saudi crown prince twice asked [[Donald Trump]] for American strikes and was refused. ## Why it's on the map This is where the wiki's Gulf money story and its war story meet. Two governments in business with the president's family (see [[Saudi Influence]] and [[Emirati Influence]]) fought this war as allies, then fought each other inside it. It is also the shortest chain the wiki tracks from a foreign civil war to an American price: Houthi control of the Bab el-Mandeb reaches voters as freight rates and [[Gas Prices]]. ## See Also - [[Yemen]] · [[Houthis]] · [[Southern Transitional Council]] · [[Saudi-Emirati Rivalry]] - [[Saudi Arabia]] · [[United Arab Emirates]] · [[Iran]] · [[Axis of Resistance]] · [[Iran War 2026]] - [[Bab el-Mandeb]] · [[East-West Crude Oil Pipeline]] · [[Hegseth Signalgate]] · [[Proxy War]]