Houthis Use ‘Foreign Plots’ as Pretext to Suppress Celebrations of September 26 Revolution

Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:

On Monday, the Houthi-affiliated Internal Affairs department released a warning statement about what it called “hostile plots targeting the domestic front and seeking to stir up discord and chaos.” The statement emphasized that its security agencies were ready to respond “firmly.”

This statement, which repeatedly accused the US, UK, and Israel of being behind these “conspiracies,” comes as the group moves to preemptively suppress any public celebrations of the September 26, 1962 Revolution. This date is a significant part of Yemenis’ collective memory, representing the founding of the republic and the end of the rule of the imamate, which the Houthis consider themselves a continuation of.

This Houthi campaign has been accompanied by a state of alert and a widespread deployment of their forces in Sana’a and other cities. In recent days, several activists and youths have been arrested. Critics accuse the Houthis of using the narrative of “foreign plots” as an excuse to shut down any spontaneous events commemorating the revolution’s anniversary.

The group’s statement stressed that “all national occasions will be held officially and in an organized manner,” warning citizens against engaging in any activities outside of this framework and labeling those who do as “agents and traitors.”

Observers believe that the Houthis’ repeated invocation of a “foreign enemy” is merely a tool to suppress freedoms and criminalize one of the greatest Yemeni revolutions, which was linked to the values of equality, the removal of class distinctions, and the embrace of education and modernization.