Reports Highlight Growing Military Cooperation Between Somalia’s Al-Shabaab and Yemen’s Houthis
SANAA: The al-Qaeda-linked Somalia group al-Shabaab is reportedly increasingly collaborating with the Houthi movement in Yemen on military matters, arms transfers and training exchanges, posing a new security threat to the United States and other regional powers.
Both groups have long had deep ideological differences, but a mutual loathing of the United States and Israel has drawn them closer together, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Drone technology and strategic access exchange.Drone technology and strategic access exchanges.
The report also notes that the Houthis are supplying al-Shabaab with sophisticated weapons and drone technology, and that al-Shabaab’s presence in the Gulf of Aden gives the Houthis the chance to increase their strategic presence along key maritime routes.
Direct communications and coordination between al-Shabaab and the Houthis have been underway since 2023, according to Arab media. The new partnership poses additional dangers to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and to world energy supply chains, experts say.
Expanding Regional Influence
The Houthis are already known to target commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea, but the alliance with al-Shabaab gives them tactical strength to project themselves towards East Africa’s coastlines.