Millions of Yemenis have been starving in Houthi-controlled areas over unpaid salaries for the past 16 months, while the Iran-backed group has allocated a huge budget to set up new graves for its dead militants, coinciding with its annual celebration of the so-called "Martyrs Week". Houthi militias allocated more than 50 billion Yemeni Rials this year to build cemeteries and new graves for their dead fighters in Sana’a, Dhumar, Rameh, Hajja, Saadah, Taiz, and Ibb, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat, saying the money will also be spent on the groups annual celebration of what it calls "Martyrs Week". Two days ago, Houthis mobilized province leaders and members of the insurgent government to set up the new graves amid ridicule among Yemeni activists. The group began to hold seminars, photo exhibitions and events in various areas. It ordered government institutions and schools to hold ceremonies to commemorate the dead and encourage them to follow their path, and citizens to join the battlefronts to gain what the group calls "the honor of martyrdom". The group began to emulate Lebanons “Hezbollah” in holding what it calls "Martyrs Week" on an annual basis. It chose the anniversary of the week in which Zayd Ali Mosleh, top aide of the groups founder Hussein al-Houthi, was killed in 2004. Mosleh was the principle of "al-Hadi" sectarian school founded by al-Houthi in his hometown of Maran, west of Saada. Yemeni activists believe that the increase in the number of graves is due to the rising number of Houthi deaths in clashes with the National Army and Arab coalition strikes on various fronts. Houthi militias do not disclose the true figures of their human losses, but unofficial local sources in Sana’a predict that about 50,000 Houthis have been killed or wounded in the past year. A week ago, the militia government ordered a special ministerial committee to oversee the establishment of the new graves and other associated events, including a massive propaganda campaign that glorifies the culture of death and murder. Activists mocked the groups achievements in establishing cemeteries. "It would be better if the group pays the money to employees instead of spending it on pictures of the dead, or gives the money, which it has spent on large billboards, to the families of the dead," they said. Activists believe that the tweet of prominent leader of the group and head of the so-called Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, in which he called for a political solution, Yemeni reconciliation and presidential and parliamentary elections, is an indication of defeat on the battlefield.