It was struck by a missile on February 18, 2024

and it sank in the Red Sea.

The missile came from Yemen, from  a group known as the Houthis.

It was one of dozens of attacks they’ve carried out on ships in the area since November 2023.

The Houthis control much of Yemen,

which has been in a civil war for more than nine years.

The war has caused one of the  world’s worst humanitarian crises.

More than 350,000 people there have  been killed

by either violence, famine, or a lack of medical services.

The Houthis say they are attacking ships in the Red Sea that do business with Israel,

in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza,

in solidarity with Palestinians,

and to put pressure on the  players involved in the war.

But there’s also another story behind the Houthis’ attacks on these ships:

the story of who controls Yemen.

For centuries, the most populated area of Yemen was mainly ruled by religious Zaydis, a Shia muslim sect.

In the 1960s, a military  revolution overthrew the Zaydis.

The region they once ruled became  a republic known as North Yemen.

The first leaders of North Yemen  were either deposed or assassinated.

But by the late 1970s, a colonel  who had been part of the revolution,

Ali Abdullah Saleh, became its president.

Saleh was Zaydi.

But he wasn’t politically aligned  with the Zaydis’ cause,

and often marginalized them.

In 1990, Saleh united the country with South Yemen.

And as the new government formed, a Yemeni politician named Hussein Al-Houthi

started a new Zaydi movement in Saada province, where many of Yemen’s Zaydis were.

Most of the country was Sunni-dominated.

Al-Houthi and his followers  were strong critics of Saleh.

And they were against Sunni Saudi Arabia’s rising religious and financial influence in the region.

They were a very small militia, not more than a few thousands of soldiers

started from an ideological belief that they have to govern Yemen.

And as Saleh cooperated with  the US in its war on terror,

They became more militarized  and more hostile to him.

In 2004, Saleh’s forces attempted to arrest  Al-Houthi, sparking clashes between their forces.

Later that year, Saleh’s army killed al-Houthi.

But this only made his movement stronger.

The new leadership and their followers became known as the Houthis.

Over the next few years, the Houthis  continued to clash with the government.

Some reports say that around this time, they also began cooperating with Iran, a Shia majority country.

Then, in January 2011, protests began  to spread across the Arab world.

Yemenis were struggling from  repression, poverty, and corruption.

Protesters in Yemen called for Saleh’s resignation

and demanded inclusion in the  country’s political process.

And soon, there were also militant attacks across  Yemen, by various factions that wanted Saleh out.

Eventually, Saleh stepped down.

He was replaced by a Saudi-backed  transitional government

led by interim President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi,

who began a national dialogue  to form Yemen’s new government.

The Houthis initially  participated in the dialogue,

but after disagreeing over  the new governance system,

which they thought marginalized  their influence, they left in 2014.

And later that year, amid a new wave of protests over fuel prices,

Hadi’s national dialogue fell apart completely.

The Houthis saw an opportunity.

“The president’s residence came under attack...”

“...presidential palace has fallen...”

“The Houthis have in fact taken control of some parts of the capital.”

“Our demands are to get rid of this corrupt government.”

The Houthis formed an alliance with their former enemy, Saleh.

In order to expand their governance, deepen their control in Yemen

and understand, how the system works,  but also play the system.

And in September 2014 they seized  control of the capital, Sana’a.

Because of the transition, Yemen had no army to defend itself.

So the Houthis basically walked into the position that they are in today.

Then, they extended their control  to Hodeidah, a key port city,

giving Houthis access to the Red Sea.

Hadi fled further south, as the Houthis followed, and eventually escaped to Saudi Arabia in March 2015...

leaving Yemen without a legitimate government

and bringing Saudi Arabia into the civil war.

A Saudi coalition led a bombing  campaign against Houthi-controlled areas

and eventually imposed a  naval blockade around Yemen

aimed at restricting the flow of  weapons from Iran to the Houthis.

But the Houthis were still able to  maintain the territory they had taken over.

Through that chaos, they were able to expand. The Houthis are expansionist by their own nature.

The more that Saudi Arabia intervened,  the more that there was chaos in Yemen,

the more that they would see or put  themselves as the legitimate actors

and the defenders of Yemeni sovereignty against the foreign invasion.

In the new territories that they controlled, which included many non-Zaydis and non-followers,

the Houthis’ rule was brutal.

The Saudis’ intervention in Yemen has created a devastating humanitarian crisis,

and the same with the Houthis.

They've also created a humanitarian crisis

with their governance system, which is absent,

through terrorizing the local population, basically.

Human rights organizations accuse  both the Saudi-led coalition,

and the Houthis, of war crimes,

like airstrikes, landmine attacks,  and forced disappearances of opponents.

Women as well have been imprisoned, 

women in particular who have any kind of advocacy against the Houthis.

So their governance is more brutish.

In that respect, they're similar really to the Taliban.

In 2017, amid tension between Saleh and the Houthis about who would wield power,

the Houthis killed him.

By 2020, after hundreds of thousands of deaths,

the Saudi-led coalition started to pull back on airstrikes and some of the blockade.

UN-brokered ceasefire talks between the Houthis and Saudis began in April 2022.

Initially, it started with a halt in fighting.

But the most recent deal, in December 2023,

aims to ease restrictions to the Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port

and open up Yemen more economically.

But there was little mention of accountability for the harm done to Yemenis.

And it was still unclear how  Yemen will actually be governed.

Many Yemenis felt that any type of agreement between the Saudis and the Houthis

are somewhat counterproductive, because it's all about Saudi security rather than Yemeni security.

And I think that was a concern for many Yemenis who are not on the side of the Houthis

and do not want to see them have absolute control in the country.

As of this video, the Houthis control territory  containing over 70% of the Yemeni population.

At the same time, they lack  international recognition or legitimacy.

And aside from their own followers, 

inside Yemen they also lack legitimacy,

among a Yemeni population  ravaged by years of crisis.

What the Houthis aim to achieve is to legitimize themselves, to broaden their support.

By framing their actions within  the context of supporting Palestine,

they want their operations to appeal to the Arab sentiment and wider Muslim sentiment.

So the more that they focus on Palestine, on the conflict with Israel, on the humanitarian crisis there,

the more that it distracts from local issues of Yemeni conflict

or the governance failures that they're experiencing.

The Red Sea attacks have caused a  major international trade disruption

And now, a US-UK led coalition is targeting Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen in retaliation,

making the situation for Yemenis even worse.

But there’s evidence that the Houthis’ strategy may be working.

Across Yemen, at massive protests in support of the Palestinians,

Yemenis are also showing support for  the Houthis’ attacks in the Red Sea

and even for Houthi leaders.

It suggests that, even though the Red  Sea attacks aren’t actually evidence

of the Houthis doing anything  to improve Yemen’s catastrophe,

they may be a way for the Houthis  to strengthen their hold on power.