Yusuf al-Madani

Yusuf Hassan Ismail al-Madani, known as Abu Hussein, is the Chief of Staff of the Houthi Army. He previously served as the commander of the Fifth Military Region - the region includes the governorates of al-Hudaydah, Hajjah, al-Mahwit, and Raymah, and is considered one of the most important under Houthi control due to access to the Red Sea. He is one of the founders of the movement’s military wing and is regarded as one of the senior military leaders in the Houthi movement, with extensive battle experience. He was born in 1977 in Hajjah Governorate, and is the middle of ten siblings. He was sent to Saada to under the Houthi scholar Majd al-Din al-Mu’ayyidi, But after only a few months he left his studies there and joined the group al-Shabab al-Mu’min (“the Believing Youth”), founded by the Houthi movement’s founder Hussein al-Houthi in the mountains of Marran. He soon became the “favorite child” of the founder, who in 2002 sent him to Iran, where he underwent intensive training in camps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After his return, the founder married him to his daughter—just months before the outbreak of the first war. He took part with his father-in-law, the rebel leader Hussein al-Houthi, in the first war in 2004 and was then at the top of the state’s wanted list. When the rebel leader was surrounded, al-Madani managed to escape, while Hussein was killed. During the fighting against the central government in Yemen throughout the six Saada wars, he established close ties with Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who recommended him to Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. He became a central link between the Houthi militias, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and Lebanese Hezbollah, and was responsible for the direct connection and supervision of training their men there, as well as for bringing Iranian and Hezbollah advisors and instructors to Yemen. In addition, he oversaw the logistics of the military aid provided to the Houthis. After the Houthis’ invasion of Sana’a, he played a central role in the release of Iranians arrested by the Yemeni authorities, and in arms-smuggling deals, including the “Jihan” ships cases.