Introduction
How is the Military in Yemen and how does it work to maintain Sucity and fight terrorism? In terms of Military and security forces, we have the 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).
Ministry of Interior: Security Forces, Emergency Forces, Counterterrorism Units (2025).
In 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, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the US), 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)
Security and military information of Yemen
| Military and security service personnel strengths | not available |
|---|---|
| Military equipment inventories and acquisitions | the Yemeni Government forces have an inventory consisting primarily of Russian and Soviet-era weapons and equipment Houthi 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, such as Chinese and Russian missiles (2024) |
| Military service age and obligation | 18 is the legal minimum age for voluntary military service; conscription abolished in 2001; 2-year service obligation (note - limited information since the start of the civil war in 2014) (2022). note: as late as 2022, all parties to the ongoing conflict were implicated in child soldier recruitment and use; during the beginning of the truce in April 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 |
| Military deployments | . |
Terrorism
In Yemen, the different Terrorist group(s) inlcude: Ansarallah (Houthis); Hizballah; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)/Qods Force; Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) - Yemen; al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
All Important Facts about Yemen
Want to know more about Yemen? Check all different factbooks for Yemen below.
