THOUSANDS of Houthi supporters took to the streets of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday evening as they celebrated the sixth anniversary of the revolution that ousted the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Demonstrators vowed to defend the “revolution of the free,” which saw the Houthi resistance movement come to power in September 2014 following mass protests against the former regime.

Huge crowds filled Sanaa’s public squares, waving Yemen’s national flag and denouncing foreign intervention while chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States.

Houthi spokesman Khaled al-Madani told those gathered that it was the anniversary of “freedom and independence.”

Rallies were also held in northern provinces, including Hodeida and Emran. In Saada, governor Mohammad Jaber Awad told the crowds that they must “continue resistance until the country is fully liberated from the shackles of foreign aggressors.”

Yemen has suffered a six-year bombing campaign by a Saudi-led coalition, backed by Britain, France and the US.

The coalition’s stated aim is to restore Mr Hadi’s puppet government,but it has been accused of war crimes, with tens of thousands of people killed, mainly civilians.

The United Nations has warned that Yemen is on the brink of the world’s worst famine in more than a century. UN children’s agency Unicef says that 1.8 million under-fives are suffering severe malnutrition.

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi praised the revolution as a great achievement in freeing Yemen from the shackles of foreign influence and control.

In a speech on Monday, he said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were merely “pawns” in the hands of the US, describing them as “cows being milked” by Washington.

Houthi fighters have continued to make advances in the central Marib region, home to Yemen’s largest oilfields, where there has been fierce fighting.

The UN and US envoys to Yemen, Hans Grundberg and Tim Lenderking, have recently visited Saudi Arabia and Oman to try to revive peace talks.