What the red sea ships are all about!

MV Ruby Mar a British-owned cargo ship which was struck by a missile on February 18th 2024 and it sank in the Red Sea. The missile came from Yemen from a group known as the Houthis which 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 9 years. This 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 houi say they are attacking ships in the Red Sea that do business with Israel and protest of Israel's war in Gaza and solidarity with Palestinians and to put pressure on the players involved in the war, but there's also another story behind the attacks on these ships. The story of who controls Yemen for centuries the most populated area of Yemen was mainly ruled by religious Zis a Shia Muslim sect in the 1960s. A military Revolution overthrew the 80s, a region they once ruled becoming 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 was part of the Revolution Ali Abdullah Salah became its president.

Sah was Zi but he wasn't politically aligned with the Zi cause and often marginalized them in 1990. Sah United the country with South Yemen and as the new government formed a Yemeni politician named Hussein Alui. He started a UZ Zi movement in Sada Province where many of Yemen's zes were most of the country was Sunni nominated. Elui and his followers were strong critics of Salah and they were against Sunni Saudi Arabia's Rising religious and financial influence in the region. There were a very small militia, not more than few thousands of soldiers started from an ideological belief that they have to govern Yemen and as Salah cooperated with the US in its war on terror. They became more militarized and more hostile to him. In 2004 salah's forces attempting to arrest Alhi sparked clashes between their forces. Later that year, Salah's Army killed Elhi but this only made his move 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 in country.

In January 2011 protests began to spread across the Arab. People there began to struggle with repression, poverty and Corruption. Protesters in Yemen called for Solace resignation and demanded inclusion in the country's political process and soon there were also militant attacks across Yemen by various factions that wanted Salah out. Eventually Salah stepped down he was replaced by a Saudi backed transitional government led by interim president Abid Rabu Mansur Hadi who began a national dialogue to form Yemen's new government the Houthis initially participated in the dialogue. However, 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 protest over fuel prices. Hadi's National dialogue fell apart completely, the Houthis saw an opportunity.

The Houthis formed an alliance with their former enemy Salah in order to expand their governance to deepen their control in in Yemen and to understand how the system works but also play the system. In September 2014 They seized control of the capital Sonat and because of the transition, Yemen had no Army to defend itself so the Houthis basically walked into the position that they are in today.

The Houthis extended their control to Hudaa a key port city giving Houis access to the Red Sea. Hedi 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 which 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 huis are expansionist by their own nature, the more that Saudi Arabia intervened the more chaos there was in Yemen, and the more that they would see or put themselves as the legitimate Actors and The Defenders of fem sovereignty against the foreign invasion in the new territories that they controlled, which included many non Zis and non-followers, the Houthi rule was brutal.

Saudi's intervention in Yemen has created a devastating humanitarian crisis and the same with the huis which has also created a humanitarian crisis with their governance system that is absent through them terrorizing the local population. Basically, human rights organizations accuse both the Saudi Le Coalition and the Houthis of war crimes like air strikes landmine attacks and force disappearances of opponents.

Women as well have been, infect women who have any kind of advocacy against the Houis, in particular. By 2020 after hundreds of thousands of deaths the Saudi Le Coalition started to pull back on air strikes and some of the blockade. UN broker ceasefire talks between the Houthis and Saudis began in April 2022, initially it started with a Halton fighting but the most recent deal in December 2023 aimed to ease restrictions to the SA airport and Huida port and open up Yemen more economically. However, 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. This might have been a concern for many EMES who are not on the side of the Houthis and do not want to see them have absolute control in the country. The Houthis control territory containing over 70% of the yeni 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 huis aim to achieve is to legitimize themselves and to broaden their support. By them framing their actions within the context of supporting Palestine’s, they want their operations to appeal to the Arab sentiment and wider Muslim sentiment. So, the more 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 of the governance failures that they're experiencing.

The Red Sea attacks have caused a major International Trade disruption and now a US UK Lead Coalition is targeting Houthi controlled areas in Yemen in retaliation, making the situation for Yemenis even worse. But, there's evidence that the Houi strategy may be working across Yemen at massive protests and 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.