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Now to the Horn of Africa, where there's growing concern about increasing ties between the Houthis in Yemen and al-Shabaab in Somalia. Two terror groups that could have shared interests across the Gulf of Aiden. The concern is technology transfer, drones, smuggling routes, maritime tactics moving from Yemen into the Horde of Africa. And if that connection grows, this is no longer fueling violence across Somalia, but across the region. Joining us to discuss more, Emily Milikin, deputy director at the IN7 Foundation. Emily, break down the broader theme here. What would be in it for the Houthies to have this partnership with Al-Shabaab? And what's in it for Al-Shabaab to have this partnership with the Houthies?
For the Houthies, Somali networks provide the group with access to smuggling corridors, coastal safe havens, fuel, and maritime surveillance operation opportunities. It also increases their influence over the Babel Mandabub strait and could provide them with additional manpower given that there's now reports of small fighters being smuggled into Yemen to fight for the group. For al-Shabaab, it's more tactical. Houthis are able to provide al-Shabaab with advanced weapons lines like drones and maritime surveillance tools as well as technical expertise they've learned from Iran and from Hezbollah trainers. And the alliance also furthers this maritime insecurity in the region that al-Shabaab is able to
profit off of both from smuggling and piracy but also from taxation of ports and maritime extortion. So are there any regional alliances looking to combat this budding alliance between these two groups? I mean what can be done here? So there's a network of both um international counterpircy operations and alliances as well as counter Houthy maritime security operations that are now kind of overlapping. But the complex um nature of this relationship really makes it difficult to cut off. One interesting thing is the growing interest in Somali land from both the United States and Israel. And as they um have these new efforts to establish themselves as an independent state and gain international recognition, we will likely see the
Somali land coast guard taking a greater role in these. Um especially since they're already cooperating with the US, with UAE, Russia, and China on maritime issues. The Somali land does the Somali land coast guard have the resources as it stands right now to actually combat some of these forces like the Houthis that are backed by Iran? they don't necessarily have the resources to wholesale take it on themselves, but having local forces um involved and engaged into these broader international coalitions that you know bring in forces from places like the UK, the US, Turkey um is really useful.
Well, how does Iran fit into all of this considering the Houthis are one of the regime's proxies? Are they influencing this alliance or pushing for it in any way? The Houthis are still aligned with Iran, but they're not a wholesale Iranian proxy and they maintain their own alliances and relationships. The Houthies growing these partnerships with al-Shabaab as well as other and non-state actors reflects them building parallel relationships, meaning that one day they could survive after the fall of the regime or act in ways they're not fully backed by Iran. Iran is not necessarily supporting this relationship with al-Shabaab. If a war with Iran does
resume, can we expect some of these alliances to be seen blocking the international waters? When it comes to the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa, we could definitely see the Houthies taking advantage of these um new networks with al-Shabaab and in Somalia. Um you know, right now they have control and influence over one side of the Baband Strait and Somalia on the other side. Um having access to both and influence over both would be really devastating.
