Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
The Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism, Muammar Al-Eryani, stated that the widespread wave of arrests carried out by the Houthi group in Dhamar governorate is a clear indicator of the state of collapse and panic the group is experiencing in the areas under its control.
In a press statement, Al-Eryani explained that the “Houthi group raided dozens of homes and arrested more than eighty civilians, including academics, educators, doctors, employees, and officials of charitable associations, in addition to a number of innocent citizens. This scene reflects the oppressive nature of the group and its continuous tendency to humiliate Yemenis and violate their dignity.”
The Minister added that this campaign is not isolated but is an extension of a repeated pattern of arrests and violations in Sana’a and the governorates of Ibb, Hudaidah, Hajjah, Al Mahwit, and Amran. This is part of a systematic policy aimed at silencing free voices and spreading fear and terror after the expansion of popular anger against the militia.
Al-Eryani pointed out that the recent Houthi actions reveal a state of internal confusion and disarray, as their security grip begins to crumble amid increasing popular discontent over the corruption and looting practiced by the group’s leaders. He affirmed that their resort to arrests and oppression proves their loss of any national project or political vision, and that they now only possess the weapon of terrorism to impose their presence.
He noted that the escalation of oppression in Dhamar exposes the group’s true image both internally and externally, showing them as a gang disconnected from Yemeni values, having lost all popular sympathy, and living in suffocating isolation within a society that has completely rejected them.
Al-Eryani asserted that the organized crimes committed by the Houthi group against civilians “will not grant them stability; instead, it will multiply their political and moral losses, and will increase Yemenis’ awareness of their reality as a tool of Iran that uses oppression as a means of survival.”
The Minister concluded his statement by stressing that the will of the Yemenis is stronger than the militia’s tyranny, and that the campaigns of arrests and threats will not deter them from continuing their struggle to restore their state and institutions, indicating that these oppressive policies will hasten the group’s downfall and the demise of its theocratic project.
In the past hours, the Houthi group launched a wide-ranging campaign of raids, abductions, and looting targeting the local community’s elite in Dhamar governorate, south of Sana’a.
Local sources stated that the group carried out simultaneous kidnapping campaigns in various districts of Dhamar governorate, targeting:
- Former local officials
- Doctors
- Teachers and educators
- Students
- Activists
- Academics at Dhamar University
- School principals
- Healthcare sector workers
- Businessmen
The sources clarified that the number of abductees exceeded at least 55 individuals, half of whom are residents of Dhamar city and its suburbs, while the rest were abducted in different districts.
