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Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents—Shiite rebels with links to
Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government—took control of

Yemen’s capital and largest city, Sana’a, demanding lower fuel prices and a new
government. Following failed negotiations, the rebels seized the presidential
palace in January 2015, leading President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government
to resign. Beginning in March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia
launched a campaign of economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthi
insurgents, with U.S. logistical and intelligence support.
In early 2015, after escaping from Sana’a, Hadi rescinded his resignation,
complicating the UN-supported transitional council formed to govern from the
southern port city of Aden. However, a Houthi advance forced Hadi to flee Aden for
exile in Saudi Arabia. While he attempted to return to Aden later that year, he
ultimately ruled as president in exile.
The intervention of regional powers in Yemen’s conflict, including Iran and Gulf
states led by Saudi Arabia, also drew the country into a regional proxy struggle
along the broader Sunni-Shia divide. In 2015, Saudi Arabia implemented a naval
blockade to prevent Iran from supplying the Houthis. In response, Iran dispatched a
naval convoy, raising the risk of military escalation between the two countries.
The militarization of Yemen’s waters also drew the attention of the U.S. Navy,
which has continued to seize Yemen-bound Iranian weapons. The blockade has been at
the center of the humanitarian crisis throughout the conflict. Saudi Arabia and the
UAE have also led an unrelenting air campaign, with their coalition carrying out
over twenty-five thousand airstrikes. These strikes have caused over nineteen
thousand civilian casualties, and from 2021 to 2022 the Houthis responded with a
spate of drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
On the battleground, the Houthis made fast progress at the start of the war, moving
eastward to Marib and pushing south to Aden in early 2015. However, a Saudi
intervention pushed the Houthis back north and west until the frontlines
stabilized. A UN effort to broker peace talks between allied Houthi rebels and the
internationally recognized Yemeni government stalled in the summer of 2016.
Elsewhere in the south and east of the country, a growing al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP) threatened the government’s control, though its influence has
since waned.
In July 2016, the Houthis and the government of former President Saleh, ousted in
2011 after nearly thirty years in power, announced the formation of a political
council to govern Sana’a and much of northern Yemen. However, in December 2017,
Saleh broke with the Houthis and called for his followers to take up arms against
them. Saleh was killed and his forces were defeated within two days. Meanwhile,
Hadi and the internationally recognized governments faced their own challenge: the
Southern Transitional Council (STC). Established in 2017, the STC grew out of the
southern separatist movement that predates the civil war and controls areas in the
southwest around and including Aden. A 2019 Saudi-brokered deal incorporated the
STC into the internationally-recognized governments, but the faction could still
present challenges.
In 2018, coalition forces made an offensive push on the coast northward to the
strategic city of Hodeidah, the main seaport for northern Yemen. The fighting ended
in a ceasefire and commitments to withdraw troops from the city; the ceasefire
largely held, but fighting continued elsewhere. Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city,
also remained a key point of contention, having been blockaded by the Houthis since
2015. In 2020, the UAE officially withdrew from Yemen, but it maintains extensive
influence in the country.
In February 2021, Houthi rebels launched an offensive to seize Marib, the last
stronghold of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and in early March,
Houthi rebels conducted missile airstrikes in Saudi Arabia, including targeting oil
tankers and facilities and international airports. The Saudi-led coalition
responded to the increase in attacks with airstrikes targeting Sana’a, Yemen’s
capital. The offensive was the deadliest clash since 2018, killing hundreds of
fighters and complicating peace processes.
Meanwhile, the conflict has taken a heavy toll on Yemeni civilians, making Yemen
the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that 60 percent of the
estimated 377,000 deaths in Yemen between 2015 and the beginning of 2022 were the
result of indirect causes like food insecurity and lack of accessible health
services. Nearly 74 per

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Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents—Shiite rebels with links to

Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government—took control of

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