ADEN, Yemen: Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi announced Sunday the start of major military operations against Houthis to retake remaining territory outside government control and restore state authority across the country.
Al-Alimi declared a shift “from preparation to action” after the exhaustion of all opportunities for de-escalation, the Saudi Gazette reported.
In an address to the Yemeni people, Al-Alimi said the decision was taken under his constitutional responsibility to protect the country’s sovereignty and citizens, based on National Defence Council decisions and following the completion of necessary military preparations.
#VIDEO: Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi announces the start of military operations to retake remaining territory held by the Houthis and restore state authority across the country. https://t.co/S29zP83lIn
— Saudi Gazette (@Saudi_Gazette) October 4, 2026
He said he had ordered the armed forces, security services and military formations to begin carrying out their missions under approved plans aimed at restoring state institutions and ending Houthi control.
Al-Alimi said Yemen’s government had given peace “all the time and opportunities it deserved,” but the Houthis responded with further escalation, including attacks and threats against civilians, national infrastructure, neighbouring countries and international waterways, the Saudi Gazette reported.
He said the government now had a national responsibility to confront the Houthis as long as weapons remained outside state authority and continued to pose a threat to citizens, Yemen’s sovereignty, regional security and international navigation.
Al-Alimi stressed that the campaign was not directed against residents of Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah, Amran, Dhamar or Ibb, nor against any sect or tribe.
He said that military operations are “the state’s battle for its citizens and the restoration of its institutions,” aimed at preventing Yemenis’ political will and future from being determined by force of arms, the Saudi Gazette reported.
Addressing people living in Houthi-occupied areas, Al-Alimi said civilians were “not targets of the operations” and that protecting their security, rights and dignity was among the campaign’s principal objectives.
He urged civilians to stay away from military positions, gatherings and Houthi supply routes and called on families not to allow their children to be drawn into the fighting.
Al-Alimi said the door remained open for “safe return and the announced amnesty” for those who lay down their weapons and stop fighting alongside the Houthis, in accordance with previously announced procedures.
He ordered the armed forces, security services and military formations to comply with the law and protect civilians and property.
“The mission is not only to retake the land, but to restore the state to it,” Al-Alimi said.
“There will be no revenge, no retaliation, no attacks on innocent people and no infringement on citizens’ property,” he added, saying every city retaken by government forces should immediately feel that it had returned to state authority.
Alongside the military campaign, Al-Alimi directed the government to prepare a programme under which state institutions would resume their responsibilities in cities, districts and governorates retaken by government forces.
Priorities would include resuming salaries for state employees and addressing outstanding payments retroactively, launching an urgent recovery and reconstruction programme, repairing roads, electricity and water networks and damaged facilities, and creating conditions for displaced people to return and economic activity to resume.
Al-Alimi called on regional and international partners to support Yemen, its armed forces and national institutions, as well as humanitarian, economic, recovery and reconstruction efforts in areas returning to government control.
Al-Alimi said Yemen’s military, security and civilian institutions would remain on full alert until the mission was completed.
He said the next phase would combine military operations with the restoration of state institutions, public services and reconstruction.
