Yemen’s Defence Ministry announces general mobilisation: recruitment and reserves activated

Yemen’s Ministry of Defence and the command of the General Staff have announced a campaign of general mobilisation and community mobilisation, as the state news agency Saba reports, cited by Al Jazeera in its live coverage of the U.S.–Iran war.

According to the announcement, Lieutenant General al-Aqili announced the measures to implement the general mobilisation order, activating recruitment and the reserve forces, organising reception centres and assigning tasks to the relevant institutions. The Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Sagheer bin Aziz, confirmed that the announcement of general mobilisation is “a national decision”.

The move comes at a moment of sharp escalation of the civil war in Yemen, with bloody fighting between the forces of the internationally recognised government — backed by Saudi Arabia — and the Iran-linked Houthi rebels, particularly in Taiz province and in the capital Sanaa, where air strikes have intensified in recent days.

The general mobilisation is seen as the Yemeni government’s largest effort to strengthen its military ranks in the face of the Houthi offensive, which has reignited a conflict that had remained largely frozen since the 2022 ceasefire.