By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2025-08-23

ADEN -- The Houthis have weaponized a professionally designed "humanitarian" website to masquerade as a legitimate maritime authority while extorting millions from international shipping companies and gathering intelligence for terrorist attacks in the Red Sea, according to experts.

The website, maintained by the Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), presents official-looking "safety guidelines" that require vessels to submit detailed transit information 48 hours in advance, maintain open communication channels, and update tracking data.

This creates what experts describe as an intelligence-gathering operation disguised as maritime safety coordination.

"HOCC is directly linked to the Houthis' security and intelligence apparatus. They use it to impose fees and target ships rather than provide humanitarian coordination," said Abdul Qader al-Kharraz, director of research at the Berlin-based Arab Democratic Center.

Some maritime tracking websites treat the center as an official body and fail to recognize its deceptive practices, which allows the Houthis to collect vast amounts of vessel information through the fraudulent scheme, al-Kharraz said.

Meanwhile, international maritime monitoring organizations have documented direct communications between the fake coordination center and commercial vessels that included "obvious threats," he noted.

The Houthis exploit safe passage requests to identify and target ships while maintaining a facade of legitimacy, he said.

In October, a United Nations (UN) panel of experts estimated that the Houthis generate $180 million monthly through maritime extortion, with the HOCC playing a central role in their operations.

Maritime coercion

The Houthis are "impersonating legitimate authority," said Fahmi al-Zubairi, director general of the Sanaa human rights office.

He characterized the scheme as unlawful aggression and de facto piracy in waters handling around 15% of trade, noting that attacks or threats against vessels could violate the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and endanger civilian crews.

He added that the scheme creates "an international legal dilemma" by forcing shipping companies to engage with the Houthis, a US-designated terrorist organization.

The Houthis are weaponizing these vital shipping lanes as "an international blackmail card to compel major powers into recognizing them as a legitimate actor," he said.

Al-Zubairi called for urgent action by the International Criminal Court and maritime authorities to address these violations, which he labeled "organized terrorism."

Maritime risk consultancy Vanguard Tech warned that the Houthi website "should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal, professional risk assessments."

The service offered through HOCC "is likely a strategic move to legitimize Houthi authority over Yemeni waters" and could expose shipping companies to "incomplete, biased, or misleading information," the consultancy said.