Houthi top leaders have been absent from activities organized by the terror group in their capital, Sanaa, among other cities under the group’s control in northern Yemen, Saudi news outlet Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.
Specialists identify the lack of leadership presence as a direct reflection of security concerns and a state of high alert within the Houthis following Israeli strikes, which have targeted the terror group’s leaders.
The Houthis have tried to perpetuate a sense of normalcy through media coverage and morale-boosting speeches, but the reality is one of fear, as the group’s main leaders have been consistently out of the picture. Public events management was handled by lower-level staff and local speakers, interpreted as a precautionary measure to reduce risk.
According to Asharq al-Awsat, the Houthis confirmed the killing of the group’s chief of staff, Mohammed al-Ghamari, leaving the future of its top leadership threatened.
The decision to hide top-tier leaders aims to avoid leaks that could reveal their location or activities.
Recent events are considered smaller
Sanaa’s residents noted that the most recent events were considered smaller and more fragmented when analysed in terms of crowd size and speech quality. Despite the use of intimidation tactics and forced attendance, the registered public attendance was visibly lower, Asharq al-Awsat reported.
“In past years, we used to see high-ranking leaders on stage, but this time, no one showed up. Even the neighborhood supervisor was hiding, and confusion was visible. The number of armed men outnumbered the attendees,” Abu Abdullah, a resident of the al-Hasbah neighborhood in northern Sanaa, said.
At the same time that capital citizens noticed the decline in public attendance at Houthi-related events, others who were forced to attend noted the extreme non-media policy at these events, a tactic used to avoid media coverage of participants.
"We were forbidden from taking pictures or mentioning the names of the attending leaders, even though they were not from the first tier. This shows an unprecedented level of panic," Khalid, a government employee in the rural areas of Sanaa, told the Saudi outlet.
Among the most prominent absent Houthi leaders were Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of the group’s ruling council, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, and Ahmed Hamid, one of the most influential figures within the group’s security apparatus. Senior military and security leaders were also not present in any field activities or media appearances linked to these events.
The top leaders' absence extended beyond field events to a near-total halt in direct media appearances, according to the report. As a result, important leaders have been communicating only through written statements or recorded speeches.