The twelfth anniversary of the Houthi coup of September 21, 2014, comes as Yemenis continue to pay the price for the day the Iran-backed armed group overran the capital, Sanaa, seized state institutions and plunged the country into one of the deadliest and most complex wars in its modern history.
The fall of Sanaa was more than a transfer of power or a shift in the political balance. It was a catastrophic turning point that derailed the transition following the February Revolution, undermined state institutions, drove millions of Yemenis into poverty and displacement, and turned the country into an open battlefield and a pawn in regional conflicts extending beyond Yemen’s borders.
Since that day, Yemenis’ lives have changed profoundly. The economy has collapsed, hundreds of thousands of public employees have gone without salaries, public services have deteriorated, and hunger and unemployment have spread. In areas under its control, the group has imposed a system built on force, repression, levies and ideological indoctrination.
From Amran to Sanaa
The road to the coup began months before the capital was overrun. The Houthis expanded their military operations from Saada governorate and seized Amran governorate in July 2014 after battles that ended with the fall of the 310th Brigade and the killing of its commander, Brigadier General Hamid al-Qushaibi.
From Amran, the group shifted its military and political focus toward Sanaa. Using opposition to a government-approved increase in fuel prices as a pretext, it set up armed camps at the entrances to the capital before launching a broad assault on military positions and government institutions.
On September 21, 2014, the Houthis, backed by forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took control of government headquarters, the Armed Forces General Command and security, military and media institutions. The Ministry of Defense and the army stood by, citing neutrality.
That same day, the UN-sponsored “Peace and National Partnership Agreement” was signed. The group, however, used it as cover to consolidate its control and did not fulfill its commitments to withdraw its fighters and hand over heavy and medium weapons to the state.
Over the following months, the Houthis tightened their grip on Sanaa and placed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and several ministers under house arrest. In February 2015, they issued what they called a “constitutional declaration,” dissolving parliament and completing their takeover of state institutions.
A War That Reached Every Home
The group did not stop at Sanaa. It sent its fighters into Marib, Taiz, Al Bayda, Ibb and Hodeidah governorates, then advanced south toward Aden. This plunged the country into a full-scale war and prompted a Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015 after a request from the Yemeni president.
Over the years of war, Yemeni cities and villages became battlegrounds. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed or injured, while millions lost their homes and sources of income and were forced to flee within the country or migrate abroad.
Taiz was among the hardest-hit governorates. The Houthis besieged the city and repeatedly shelled its residential neighborhoods. The group also planted landmines on roads, in farmland and around populated areas in several governorates, leaving civilian casualties that continue to mount today.
Twelve years on, the front lines remain active. The latest Houthi escalation on the western coast and in Taiz, Lahj and Marib governorates has caused a new wave of displacement exceeding 104,000 people within Yemen, according to the International Organization for Migration, in addition to thousands of Yemenis who crossed the sea seeking safety in Djibouti.
A Parallel State and an Exhausted Economy
In areas under its control, the Houthi group has worked to dismantle state institutions and reshape them to serve its authority. It has installed its own supervisors in place of administrative officials, taken control of public resources and revenue-generating institutions, and diverted a large share of those resources to the war effort.
Since late 2016, most government employees in areas under the group’s control have not received their salaries regularly, even as the group has continued to collect taxes, customs duties, zakat, telecommunications fees and other revenues.
The Houthis have imposed a wide range of levies on traders, shop owners, farmers, property owners and transport operators under various labels, including support for the front lines and the staging of sectarian events. This has led to the closure of hundreds of businesses, layoffs and higher costs for goods and services.
As living conditions have worsened, the group has built business and commercial networks linked to its leaders and granted them privileges in the fuel, telecommunications, real estate and import sectors. Most families, meanwhile, have become unable to meet their basic needs.
Education in the Service of War
Education has been among the most prominent casualties of the coup. The group brought schools and universities under its authority, altered curricula and introduced ideas intended to strengthen loyalty to its leadership and ideological outlook.
It also intensified sectarian activities and indoctrination courses within educational institutions, using schools, mosques and summer centers to recruit children, indoctrinate them and send them to the front lines.
During the war, local and international human rights reports documented the recruitment of thousands of children, some from schools and poor neighborhoods, before they were sent to the front lines. The bodies of many were returned to their families after funeral ceremonies that the group turned into another means of recruiting fighters.
At the same time, teachers’ conditions deteriorated and they were deprived of salaries. Large numbers of students dropped out of school because their families could not afford the costs of education or because they were pushed into work or onto the front lines.
Repression of Public Life
Since taking control of Sanaa, the Houthi group has shut down media outlets and the offices of television channels, newspapers and websites, looted their equipment, and detained journalists and media workers, forcing many to leave areas under its control.
The group has also carried out arrests and enforced disappearances targeting politicians, activists, students, academics, mosque preachers and civil society workers. Courts under its control have issued death sentences against hundreds of Yemenis and ordered the confiscation of opponents’ property.
Repression has extended to citizens over social media posts or participation in public gatherings. Detainees in the group’s prisons have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment, and hundreds have died in custody or shortly after their release.
In recent years, the group has increasingly restricted women’s movement and work, introduced requirements for travel, and carried out campaigns targeting women active in public life.
Reshaping Society’s Identity
The Houthis’ project has gone beyond military and political control to attempts to reshape society along hereditary and sectarian lines through control of mosques, schools, universities, media outlets and cultural institutions.
The group has imposed its events and slogans in public institutions, streets and schools, and linked access to jobs, aid and privileges to loyalty. It has also placed figures from the lineage of its leader, or those loyal to him, in positions of decision-making and influence.
It has seized the homes, land and property of opponents and brought the judiciary and security sector under its supervision, denying victims access to an independent court or an authority capable of providing redress.
From a Domestic Coup to a Regional Threat
Over the years, the consequences of the coup have spread beyond Yemen. With Iranian support, the group has developed an arsenal of ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden boats, which it has used to attack Saudi and Emirati territory and threaten international shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.
Houthi attacks on commercial vessels have disrupted shipping routes and raised transport and insurance costs, turning the Yemeni coast into one of the most dangerous areas for maritime traffic. The coup had begun with a domestic message claiming to fight corruption and implement economic reforms.
With the latest military escalation, the group’s threats have once again expanded toward the western coast, Bab al-Mandab and targets deep inside Saudi Arabia. This is a further indication that the continued capture of Yemeni state institutions by an armed group poses a danger not only to Yemenis, but also to regional security and international sea lanes.
An Open Wound
Twelve years on, September 21 is no longer merely a political milestone in Yemen’s history. It marks the divide between a state struggling with crises that could have been addressed and a country torn apart by war, hunger, displacement and division.
The Houthis entered Sanaa under slogans calling for the cancellation of the fuel price increase and a fight against corruption. The result, however, was the collapse of the state itself, the seizure of its resources, the suspension of its employees’ salaries, the closure of public life and the dependence of millions of Yemenis on humanitarian aid.
While the group seeks to present its coup as a “revolution,” Yemeni families recall their losses on this anniversary: a relative killed or detained, a destroyed home, a lost job, an unpaid salary, a child deprived of education or a family driven from its home by war.
Twelve years have passed, and September 21 still casts a heavy shadow over Yemen. What began with an armed takeover of the capital ended with the undermining of the state, the tearing apart of society and the engulfing of the country in a war from whose effects almost no Yemeni household has been spared.
