French Magazine: 10 Years After Taking Over Sanaa, Houthis’ Grip in Yemen Still Risky

The French magazine "Orion 21" said that the Houthis' grip on Yemen is still precarious even after ten years of their seizure of Sanaa and the subsequent consolidation of their power in large parts of Yemen, whether internally, through the establishment of an authoritarian state, or regionally, where their military capabilities are growing.

A report by the magazine, translated by "Yemeni Youth Net", indicated that at the expense of tens of thousands of deaths and the destruction of entire villages, the Houthi group strengthened its armed force, tribal connections, ideological cohesion and geographical base until it reached the borders of the capital, Sana'a, shortly before the 2011 uprising, as a marginal expression of the political and religious scene.

According to the report, “Between 2012 and 2014, the Houthis were able to draw on former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s financial and military resources to undermine the revolutionary process they initially supported. In doing so, they were able to achieve another of their goals: tearing apart their common opponent, the Islah Party.”

But the deal was clearly a sham for Saleh and benefited the Houthis. They were then able to begin a period of exercising and consolidating power, a period that continues ten years later despite obvious weaknesses.

To empower themselves, the report finds, the Houthis have been exploiting and seizing part of international humanitarian aid, besieging UN agencies as well as NGOs, which have been paralyzed since 2015, due to fears of widespread famine, and eventually accepting the Houthis’ demands and the apparent corruption in the distribution structures.

In 2018, the attack on Hodeidah, Yemen's fifth most populous city, was called off following the Stockholm Agreement, cementing their position in this port and thus on the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, at the local level, the Houthis have developed a security network, increasing surveillance and repression of civil society. They have relied on a nationalist backlash by describing the Western-backed Arab coalition’s operation as aggression, thus maintaining a certain level of popularity.

The report said that the existence of a tax system specific to the Hashemites, restrictions on women’s basic rights and morality police have locked society into a logic that many opponents of the Houthis describe as totalitarian or ultimately close to that imposed by the Afghan Taliban.

Despite their claim to be republican, it is understood that the supremacy of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and his clan in general, and especially the guardianship exercised by Hussein, his half-brother and founder of the movement, who was killed by the army in 2004, is working to transfer the Houthis to hereditary power. This also becomes partly independent of the state and in effect marginalizes the Sunni majority; it is based on fear of repression that is more effective in the context of war.

The report questioned the Houthis’ sincerity in facilitating the Saudis’ work in achieving peace. Internally, they maintain their military positions and have not eased the pressure on Taiz, for example. They have been working for more than two years to humiliate Saudi Arabia by raising the cost of peace.

According to the magazine, it is undeniable that the Houthis' regional strategy affects Yemenis as well as the population of neighboring countries. It considered that the attack on the ship Rubimar, which was transporting fertilizers in March 2024 and sank with its cargo, and then on the oil tanker Sunion in August 2024, demonstrate a hardline logic.

The report said that if the inconvenience caused by the Houthis in Israel (and Western countries) is not merely symbolic, and if it is actually consistent with the sincere commitment of the population in favor of Palestinian rights, many Yemenis are urgent above all to end the war. They are demanding that the Houthis clarify their long-term political project, without which the stability of their regime imposed for ten years may not last.