By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-02-02

ADEN -- Military experts in Yemen say the Iran-backed Houthis have recruited Somali pirates and Yemeni fishermen to work for them to smuggle weapons and convey advanced Iranian missile and drone technology into the country.

The waters between Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen are known as "smuggling corridors" used to transport illegal drugs and weapons through the region on a regular basis, they say, fueling instability in Yemen and Somalia.

In a study published in November 2021, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime revealed that Iranian weapons transferred to the Houthis are being systematically smuggled to Somalia through the Gulf of Aden.

The organization's report was based on data derived from over 400 pieces of weaponry, documented at 13 locations throughout Somalia over a period of eight months, as well as from the cargo on 13 intercepted boats.

The Houthis currently have a presence in Somalia and have been trained to smuggle by Somali pirates, Abaad Center for Strategic Studies in Yemen director Abdul Salam Mohammed told Al-Fassel.

Somali pirates are working with the Houthis to smuggle Iran-made weapons to Somalia and transport the weapons to territory under the Houthis' control on small fishing boats, he said.

Mohammed said there are reports that the Houthis have been able to recruit pirates "to work for them and transport and smuggle weapons and illegal drugs between the eastern and western shores of the Red Sea."

The Houthis' attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden lately have prompted a diversion of international naval forces from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea.

This has in turn sparked fears of resurgent pirates exploiting the gap, with the first successful case of Somali piracy since 2017 recorded in December, AFP reported January 29.

Pirate attacks off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 before falling off sharply in recent years.

On January 27, suspected Somali pirates boarded and hijacked the Sri Lankan fishing trawler Lorenzo Putha–4 with six crew, some 840 nautical miles southeast of the Somali capital Mogadishu, the Sri Lankan navy said.

And on December 16, Somali pirates hijacked the Bulgaria-owned and Malta-flagged bulk carrier MV Ruen 380 nautical miles east of the Yemeni island of Socotra.

The pirates, who released one injured sailor into the care of the Indian navy, took the MV Ruen and its remaining 17 crew members to Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland.

Recruitment of fishermen

The Houthis have been attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb "with Iranian weapons smuggled through Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea," military expert and retired Yemeni army officer Jamil al-Maamari told Al-Fassel.

Iranian weapons are smuggled in various ways, including by Yemeni fishermen reportedly recruited by the Houthis for this very purpose, al-Maamari said.

The Houthis have recruited many fishermen and rented their boats, he said.

"They unload smuggled weapons from Iranian ships onto the fishermen's boats that deliver them to the Yemeni coast," he said.

There are "dead zones in the Horn of Africa in Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea where the Houthis manage to unload weapons without being seen," al-Maamari said.

He noted that there is significant correlation between arms smuggling and the targeting of maritime navigation, as some fishermen are hired to smuggle weapons and carry out terrorist attacks.

"These Yemeni fishermen are not under satellite surveillance or the surveillance of military reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States and United Kingdom," he said.

They are not under constant watch, which makes their malign actions possible, he said.

Iranian smuggling routes

According to the United Nations' panel of experts on Yemen, Yemeni Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi said, the IRGC has turned Iran's Bandar Abbas port into "a launch pad for smuggling weapons to Yemen."

The weapons are smuggled via several routes, including three by sea that connect to Somalia, Bab al-Mandeb and the Yemeni coast. They are then unloaded in al-Hodeidah, he told Al-Fassel.

"Iranian ships in the Red Sea provide logistical services and help smuggle advanced Iran-made weaponry through the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, endangering cargo ships," he said.

Al-Majeedi called on the international community and the United Nations to put a stop to the ongoing smuggling of Iranian weapons via land and sea.

He stressed the important role the United States and its allies are playing "in restoring the security and stability of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait, stabilizing international navigation."