Starting in mid-November, Houthis in Yemen began to block ships from accessing the Red Sea. The reason for this, they say, is a protest against the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine.


The actual impact of this move has been considerable. TIME reported that “traffic through the Red Sea dropped by 35 percent,” and many shipping companies are now opting to travel the longer, much costlier route around Africa to send goods.


So how do they actually enforce this blockade? Well, according to Vox, Houthis have begun firing rockets and boarding ships in the Red Sea to stop traffic and to spook other ships away from traveling in the area. Now we’re learning that, not only are they doing this, but they’re taking thirst traps as they do it.



That’s right: the internet is now thirsting over one of the Yemeni pirates, who a post has virally dubbed “Timhouthi Chalamet.”


For some context, the ship itself appears to be the Galaxy Leader, which was hijacked back in November. No one was killed in the operation, though 25 people on the boat were taken hostage. Also, the BBC shows multiple Houthis taking selfies on board, so we may have even more thirst traps coming soon!




But if you’re only in it for this guy, he has plenty more posts where that came from on Instagram. And yes, he seems to be loving the attention, reposting pretty much every mention he can of himself onto his story.




It turns out, the revolution really won’t be televised — it’ll be FaceTuned and put on TikTok.