Crime Rates Spike in Yemen’s Houthi-held Areas

Yemeni territory controlled by Iran-backed Houthi militias have witnessed an unprecedented spike in crime rates over the last two weeks. Killings, kidnappings, and lootings have devastated Sanaa and other insurgent-held areas.

According to Sanaa-based sources, who spoke under the conditions of anonymity, the number of victims of the security chaos in the capital has risen by the dozens.

In Houthi-run areas, murders, thefts and robberies are taking place daily against civilians and public property.

Yemenis complained to Asharq Al-Awsat about the escalating chaos that swept through Sanaa, accompanied by the spread of armed gangs and mafias.

A retired anti-Houthi officer, who requested anonymity, said that most of Sanaa has become a fertile land for organized crime, heinous murders and arbitrary plunders.

Addressing the recent brutal murder of Abdullah Al-Aghbry that sparked widespread protests, the officer said that the horrendous crime was preceded by hundreds of similar acts of violence that Houthi-held cities have witnessed.

Coinciding with Al-Aghbry’s killing, three murders were committed by armed bandits in Sanaa, the officer added.

The victims were all civilians that included a pharmaceutical distributor and a businessman.

Also in Hodeidah, a Houthi militiaman killed his father, mother and a relative under mysterious circumstances.

The militiaman, according to local sources, had undergone extensive Houthi training and was indoctrinated into extremist ideology.

In Dhamar, a Yemeni male in his 40s killed his mother along with five members of his family, including an infant.

Sabri al-Barawi, the perpetrator, had joined Houthi ranks alongside his two brothers a few months before he committed the heinous crime, a Dhamar-based source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

US reports confirmed that the Houthi group has turned Yemen into a fertile environment for crime and corruption.

Local Yemeni reports documented seven accounts of murders and torture carried out by Houthis in less than a week.