Gulf of Aden Security Review

Yemen: Humanitarian ceasefire fails; Yemeni military forces attack Saudi Border guard positions

Horn of Africa: KDF conducts airstrikes in Gedo region; al Shabaab militants attack base in Middle Shabelle

Yemen Security Brief

• The al Houthi movement and the Saudi Arabian-led air coalition have violated the humanitarian ceasefire agreement negotiated between the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the al Houthis. The Saudi Arabian-led coalition has stated that the Hadi government did not request the coalition to cease aerial bombardment of al Houthi positions. Separately, the Permanent Envoy to Yemen for the UN, Khaled al Yemeni, presented a list of al Houthi ceasefire violations to the United Nations Security Council.[1]    

• Members of the Yemeni military and local popular resistance groups attacked Saudi Arabian border positions in the al Doud, al Dukhan, and Jelah regions in Jizan province, Saudi Arabia on July 9. It is possible that the attack was in reaction to a Saudi Arabian-led coalition July 7 airstrike on the Yemeni 23rd Mechanized Brigade in the al Abr region of Hadramawt governorate.[2] 

Horn of Africa Security Brief

• Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) conducted two airstrikes targeting al Shabaab in Gedo region on July 12, resulting in the deaths of ten civilians and the destruction of two al Shabaab vehicles. KDF officials announced that the attack was not retaliatory but was rather part of an ongoing offensive against al Shabaab in southern Somalia.[3]

• Al Shabaab gunmen attacked a Somali military base in Raga El, Middle Shabelle region, on July 13. The militants briefly held the base following the attack, and the resulting clash left at least ten Somali soldiers and two al Shabaab militants dead.[4]