No, the Houthis have not announced a ceasefire following Trump's victory

Context

Following Donald Trump's election as the 47th president of the U.S. on November 6, social media users took to X (formerly Twitter) to incorrectly assert that Yemen's Houthis had declared a ceasefire. 

One user claimed, "The Houthis just announced that they're done fighting Israel, stopping their operations. It has barely been hours and world peace is returning thanks to Donald Trump." She included a photo of Yahya Sare'e, spokesperson of a renegade faction of the Yemeni Armed Forces closely aligned with the Houthis. The post has been viewed over 157,000 times. 

The Houthis have launched more than 40 attacks on commercial ships crossing the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023 in response to Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. The group has targeted ships linked to Israel, leading to the U.S. and U.K. militaries intervening by carrying out airstrikes on Houthi targets. 

But the Houthis have not announced a ceasefire in the wake of Trump's victory. 

What we found

The source of the claim appears to be an Arabic-language X account that publishes news about the region. The account, @NewsNow4USA, has over 2.3 million followers. It posted the claim in the early hours of November 6 that a Houthi spokesman had announced, "Our operations in international waters were defensive only, and we announce their final cessation." 

However, the first clue that this announcement may not have been genuine was the timing. The post was published at 07:12 a.m. (GMT). However, according to BBC News, their affiliate organization CBS News had projected Trump as the overall winner hours later, at 10:30 a.m. (GMT). Other news organizations, such as The Guardian and AP News, projected his victory at roughly the same time, making it unlikely that the Houthis would have decided on a ceasefire and announced it three hours prior. 

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sare'e has an active X account, where he posts official announcements from the group. His last post was on November 3, announcing that the Houthis will continue to impose a naval blockade on ships linked to Israel. There have been no announcements since then, nor any related to Trump's victory.

Mohammad Al-Basha, a communications analyst who specializes in Yemen, said on his X account that the announcement was "completely false." "This page, with millions of followers, is a clickbait platform known for fabricating stories out of thin air," Al-Basha posted. 

Logically Facts contacted Al-Basha, who confirmed that the X account is his and the news of the ceasefire is false. 

The verdict 

Following Donald Trump's election victory claims that the Houthis have announced a ceasefire have gone viral on social media. However, the account that first made the claim announced it prior to Trump being declared the winner. The announcement does not appear on the official Houthis spokesperson's account and an expert announced that the news is false. We have, therefore, marked this claim false.