Yemen

government forces under the Yemeni Ministry of Defense are responsible for both external and internal defense; their priorities are the Houthi separatists (aka Ansarallah), the terrorist groups al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in Yemen (ISIS-Yemen), and maritime security, particularly against arms smuggling; in 2022, the Yemeni Government and the Houthis signed a truce, halting most fighting and establishing humanitarian measures; the former front lines of conflict, in some areas mirroring Yemen’s pre-unification borders, remain static; AQAP and ISIS-Yemen continue to be active in remote areas (2025)

Yemeni Armed Forces: Yemeni National Army, Air Force and Air Defense, Navy and Coastal Defense Forces, Border Guard, Strategic Reserve Forces (includes Special Forces and Presidential Protection Brigades, which are under the Ministry of Defense but responsible to the president), Popular Committee Forces (aka Popular Resistance Forces; government-backed tribal militia) Ministry of Interior: Security Forces, Emergency Forces, Counterterrorism Units (2025)

note 1: both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have raised and continue to back tribal and regionally based irregular forces in Yemen

note 2: Houthi (alt Huthi; aka Ansarallah) forces include land, aerospace (air, missile), naval/coastal defense, presidential protection, special operations, internal security, and militia/tribal auxiliary components; a considerable portion--up to 70 percent by some estimates--of Yemen’s military and security forces defected in whole or in part to former president SALAH and the Houthi opposition in 2011-2015

limited available information; 18 is the legal minimum age for military service under the Yemeni Government (2025)

note: there is widespread recruitment of fighters by numerous armed groups operating in Yemen; all parties to the civil war have been implicated in child soldier recruitment and use; in 2022, the Houthis signed a plan with the UN to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers; Houthi leaders previously pledged to end the use of child soldiers in 2012, as did the Government of Yemen in 2014; in 2019, the Saudi and UAE-led coalition committed to protect children in a memorandum of understanding signed with the UN

the Yemeni Government forces have an inventory consisting primarily of older foreign-supplied weapons systems, mostly of Russian or Soviet origin (2025)

note: Houthi rebel forces are armed largely with weapons seized from the Yemeni Government stockpiles, smuggled in from Iran, and manufactured copies of Iranian designs and pre-war Yemeni Government weapons

not available