Yemen just reshuffled its cabinet as Houthi fighters close in on Aden
2 hours ago · 3 November 2026Share
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden holds a bilateral meeting with the President of Yemen Rashad al-Alimi in New York. File photo. UK Government · CC BY 2.0
Yemen's government just reshuffled its cabinet. And Houthi fighters are closer to the capital than they've been in over a decade.
Rashad Al Alimi runs Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council. A day ago, he signed a decree naming three new ministers.
Salem Al Awlaki is now minister of information. He's replacing Moammar Eryani, who held that job since 2016. Eryani's now been made an ambassador in the foreign ministry.
Judge Akram Naseeb Ahmed Al Amiri is the new minister of civil service and insurance. Ahmed Al Awlaki is the new minister of local administration.
So why now?
Rashad Al Alimi isn't just head of the council. He's also the supreme commander of Yemen's armed forces. And on the very same day, he made separate changes to the military command running the Tur al-Bahah front. That's the frontline where the Houthis are advancing right now.
The government hasn't said the reshuffle is a response to the fighting. But look at the timing. It landed one day after four military contacts told Reuters that Houthi fighters had pushed to within 80 kilometres of Aden.
And here's why that number matters.
The Houthis haven't been this close to Aden since the early months of the war, back in 2015. Back then, they actually got into the city, before a Saudi-led coalition stepped in and drove them out.
So how did they get this close again?
It started about five days ago. Houthi fighters hit government positions in Al-Maqatirah district. Within three days, they controlled the whole district. Government forces fell back to Tur al-Bahah, and the fighting there hasn't stopped. That camp sits roughly 50 kilometres from Lahj's provincial capital, and 80 kilometres from Aden.
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View of the Gulf of Aden taken during ISS Expedition 6. File photo.Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domain
And it gets worse. This advance threatens the main road connecting Aden to Taiz, Yemen's third-biggest city. Taiz has been under Houthi siege since early October, when its road to Aden was cut. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by that siege alone. Food, fuel and medicine are all running short.
There's a bigger prize too. The advance could let the Houthis outflank government troops along the mountains above the Bab Al Mandeb strait. Government forces only took that ground back from the Houthis weeks ago. And that strait matters well beyond Yemen — it's a key route for Saudi oil heading to Asia.
This is all part of a wider push that started in September, when Houthi forces moved down the Red Sea coast and seized ground near the strait.
Tom Fletcher is the UN's humanitarian chief. Two days ago, he said nearly 300,000 people have been displaced since August. Aid workers have reached almost 260,000 of them, he said, but the needs are growing faster than the response. Food prices in Taiz are up by at least 50 per cent. Water production has halved. Hospitals are short on fuel and medicine.
Tom Fletcher also condemned the death of a UN Human Rights Office colleague, Mohammad El Shami, who died in Houthi custody. He said 70 UN staff and dozens of other aid workers are still being held.
Two days ago, Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council met to talk through the Houthi attacks on state institutions, the siege of Taiz, strikes on Saudi Arabia, and threats to shipping. The council said none of its military progress would have been possible without Saudi Arabia's support.
The Saudi-led coalition said on social media, two days ago, that it had shot down a ballistic missile and two drones the Houthis had fired toward Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis haven't said anything about the cabinet reshuffle.
All of this is happening on the wreckage of a 2022 UN-brokered truce. That truce had mostly held since the war began in 2014, when the Houthis forced the government out of Sanaa.
What the reshuffle is actually meant to achieve still hasn't been explained. The government hasn't said whether the new ministers have any specific role in fighting the war, or whether this is the first sign of a bigger change in strategy as the Houthis close in on the capital it governs from.
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