![A displaced Yemeni man wearing a protective mask arrives to receive relief items distributed by employees of the World Food Programme amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, in Sanaa on April 18th. [Essa Ahmed/AFP]](/cnmi_am/images/2020/04/21/23636-Yemen-Sanaa-pandemic-700_496.webp)
The Iran-backed Houthis (Ansarallah) have turned quarantine centres hosting people who seek to return to areas under the militia's control into platforms for promoting their ideology, according to Sanaa residents and media reports.
Houthis have been quarantining returnees from abroad or from government-held areas for 14 days as a precaution against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Yemen.
Yemeni media reported that some returnees are being quarantined at a government building in Sanaa where they receive sectarian indoctrination lessons, before being asked to join the Houthis on the frontlines.
The lessons promote the Houthi ideology -- which upholds the Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist] doctrine -- by broadcasting lectures of Houthi movement founder Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, and speeches by Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi and Lebanon's Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasarallah.
Mansour Ali, who recently returned to Yemen from Saudi Arabia, said he was held at one of the quarantine centres for two weeks.
"The journey back home was very long," he told Al-Mashareq.
During quarantine, Ali said he had to listen to "lessons that promote Houthi rule and urge us to engage in jihad".
'Worried about indoctrination efforts'
Though the Houthis are holding returnees at quarantine sites to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, no tests are being done, as testing capabilities are not available at those sites, political analyst Faisal Ahmed told Al-Mashareq.
"People are worried that the Houthis' [indoctrination] efforts might succeed in luring their underage children and sending them to the battlefields," he said.
Through their media outlets, the Houthis also have been urging residents in areas under their control to report returnees, Ahmed said, adding that many have been detained with their families.
"This exposes the returnees to financial extortion," he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Health Minister Ali al-Walidi said tests conducted on a suspected coronavirus case in Aden on Sunday (April 19th) came back negative.
"The only confirmed coronavirus case in Yemen is the one that has already been reported in al-Shahr in Hadramaut province," he said.
