The Houthis raided more than five homes and facilities belonging to qat growers in the Al-Haweri area of Hamdan district, in northern Sana’a governorate on Friday, local sources told Almasdar Online.

On the same day, the group abducted about forty people, including five elderly people and relocated them to the Dharwan area of Hamdan to attend Houthi-run “cultural training” courses centered around the group’s religious and sectarian ideas.

The arrests were carried out by the Houthis under the pretext that residents of Hamdan were sympathetic to a member of the government forces in Marib who died while fighting the Houthis. The local residents denied this claim.

Local sources said that prominent figures in the General People's Congress (GPC) and Islah parties in the district were among those captured from a location they frequented.

The Houthi-appointed governor of Sana'a, Abdul Basit Al-Hadi, who succeeded former governor Hanin Qatina, issued an order for the abductees to be released on condition they attend a week-long indoctrination course carried out by the group, local residents said.