Houthis take control of charity headquarters

Armed Houthi militias stormed a literacy centre run by the Solidarity Foundation in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, eye witnesses said, 24 women were holding a sit-in in the centre after the Houthi group threatened to storm it.

Earlier, Houthi groups had taken control of the Orphan Foundation charity in Al-Nahda, Sanaa, and seized its contents.

It also imposed a blockade on the Solidarity Foundation which sponsors hundreds of needy families, and threatened to storm it, but the director of the women’s charity and the women working within it decided to hold a sit-in, sending an urgent distress call to prevent the armed group from storming the organisation that provides social and health services for more than 800 families.

The Houthis had previous gained control of the headquarters of the Executive Body of the National Conference of Young People in Sanaa. The organisation condemned the storming of the headquarters and looted of its contents, calling the move irresponsible mob behaviour.

Last Friday, the Houthis took control of Fatima Mosque in Sanaa and its auxiliary buildings including the school for teaching the Qur’an, a kindergarten, and the house of the Imam, as part of a larger campaign which has seen the Houthis select Imams to lead the Friday prayers at a number of mosques, after many Imams were expelled from their posts.