Military tensions are rising across Yemen after the internationally recognised government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi group deployed reinforcements to several front lines, raising fears that the country's fragile 2022 truce could unravel.
The mobilisation comes after government leaders stepped up their rhetoric against the Houthis and ordered the armed forces to maintain maximum readiness, heightening concerns among Yemenis that the conflict could slide back into full-scale war after years of relative calm.
Yemen's Supreme Security Committee met in the interim capital, Aden, on Monday, affirming the readiness of military and security forces to protect the country's sovereignty. It also called for the rapid completion of a joint military and security operations room.
Military commanders on the western coast also held meetings following recent fighting in southern Hodeidah, while the Joint Forces approved raising combat readiness across all units stationed in the area.
Violent clashes erupted on Sunday on the Jabal Dabbas front in southern Hodeidah province, leaving dozens dead and wounded on both sides in one of the fiercest battles since the UN-brokered truce came into effect in April 2022.
Following the fighting, Yemeni Minister of State Waleed Al-Qadeemi said 15 government soldiers were killed. He also claimed government forces killed more than 50 Houthi fighters and wounded dozens more.
The Houthis have not commented on the reported casualty figures.
However, the group's Saba News Agency announced the deaths of two men, saying they were killed while "defending the homeland and its security and stability", without specifying where or when they died. Escalation in western and eastern Yemen The latest escalation follows Houthi claims on Friday that the group had "confronted" Saudi warplanes attempting to prevent an Iranian civilian aircraft from landing at Sanaa airport.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree warned the group would target Saudi airports and strategic interests on land and at sea if Saudi Arabia continued violating Yemeni airspace.
A military source in the internationally recognised government told The New Arab that "the Houthi movements and provocations carried out by the group in coordination with Iran, and the Iranian aircraft's violation of Yemeni sovereignty, prompted the state's supreme leadership to order an increase in combat readiness across all army forces".
The source said the heightened alert covered forces "stationed on the front lines, as well as in their brigades and camps, in preparation for any emergency and any directives that may be issued to confront hostile movements".
The source added that "the Joint Forces stationed on the western coast have deployed reinforcements to the contact line with the Houthis in southern Hodeidah, which witnessed fierce clashes and is experiencing escalating military tensions".
According to the same source, additional military reinforcements have also arrived from Aden and Lahj to support the Joint Forces on the western coast.
Meanwhile, field sources on the western coast told The New Arab that clashes around Hays, south of Hodeidah, had eased over the past few hours after both sides suffered losses in personnel and equipment.
The sources said the Houthis had deployed reinforcements over the previous 24 hours to strengthen their positions south of Hodeidah after attempting to seize strategic locations north of Hays during the past two days.
Military tensions are also rising in eastern Yemen, particularly in the Al-Rayyan area of Al-Jawf province, where the Nakhef tribal confederation and Houthi forces have been mobilising.
The Houthis have sent reinforcements to Al-Yatamah, Al-Matoon, Al-Maraziq and other parts of Al-Jawf close to Nakhef tribal areas.
Tribal fighters have also continued arriving in support of the Nakhef tribes, armed with medium and heavy weapons, amid uncertainty over how the military build-up by both sides will develop. Yemenis fear renewed conflict As military mobilisation intensifies, many Yemenis fear the country could once again descend into open conflict, deepening the humanitarian and economic crises that have already devastated civilian life.
Mansour Saeed told The New Arab that citizens live with war every day, "so we want the war to end quickly".
He explained: "Every day we wake up to bad news. We have been unable to live and carry out our work and our lives normally, and all of this is because the war has continued and remained unresolved – neither war nor peace – and our lives have remained suspended as well. That is why we fear continuing to live like this."
Saeed said ending the war would provide an opportunity to end people's suffering, restore basic services, revive commercial and economic activity and create jobs.
Retired civil servant Mohammed Awsan told The New Arab : "We overcame our fears over the past 10 years, all of which we lived through as wars. We drove the Houthis out of Aden, then entered one war after another between the legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council, Houthi cells and Al-Qaeda, and disputes among the coalition countries."
According to Awsan, all these conflicts and wars "caused people to suffer and subjected them to hardship through the collapse of services, the economy and the currency".
He added that "the war with the Houthis may now return, so all we want to know is how it will end for us, and whether there will be a chance for us to rejoice and see our problems and crises come to an end".
Jamila Basuwaid told The New Arab that people's fears "are linked to the possibility that the war will increase people's suffering, cause the currency and services to collapse, worsen the economic crises, increase the number of young people killed in the war, and deepen the suffering of women".
She questioned whether there was genuinely an intention to wage and decisively resolve the war against the Houthis "or whether it was just empty talk", arguing that "this alone amounts to psychological warfare against the people".
She added: "If there is real intent, then they (the government) should take advantage of the tribal mobilisation in Al-Jawf and support it to fight the Houthis and relieve the people because people are no longer able to endure any more." Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here .