Yemeni government declares mobilisation as open war inches closer

The leader of Yemen’s government has announced a general mobilisation in the fight against Houthi rebels, urging Yemenis to join the armed forces and “contribute in every way possible” to the struggle for control of the country.

Rashad Al Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, made the announcement on September 25, as reported by Al Jazeera. 

It came as the country faces open warfare for the first time in years, with Houthi forces advancing toward the sea and launching attacks on Saudi Arabia.

In his address, he said the objective of the mobilisation was to “restore state institutions and extend sovereignty over the entire national territory,” including the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control since 2014.

“I call upon the sons of our great people to engage in general mobilisation and national duty, to rally around their armed and security forces, to join their ranks through official channels, and to contribute in every way possible,” Al Alimi said.

Al Alimi also clarified that Houthi fighters who lay down their arms would be offered amnesty.

The conflict between Yemeni government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis returned to full-scale fighting several weeks ago after being largely frozen since a truce was agreed in 2022.

The Houthis have seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive, giving them full control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and raising international concerns over shipping through the chokepoint.

The renewed fighting has also deepened an already severe humanitarian crisis, with more than 133,000 people displaced and some fleeing across the Red Sea to Africa.

Humanitarian crisis

Around 2.2 million children under the age of five are forecast to suffer from acute malnutrition across Yemen by the end of the year, UNICEF said. More than 500,000 of those cases are expected to involve severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form.

“In the past weeks, of nearly 2,900 children screened by UNICEF mobile nutrition teams, more than one in four children were acutely malnourished and more than 200 had severe acute malnutrition,” Akhil Iyer, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, told reporters on the same day the mobilisation was announced.

UNICEF said it was scaling up emergency assistance to reach up to 231,000 people through mobile health and nutrition teams, water services and child protection programmes.

By Nazrin Sadigova