Gulf of Aden Security Review - April 30, 2019

Yemen: Al Qaeda releases new video about Islamic State in Yemen; Saudi-led coalition spokesperson gives briefing in Riyadh; Southern Movement and STC leaders meet in Aden; Saudi Arabia requests UN designate al Houthi movement as terrorists; al Houthi forces claim IED and missile attacks in southern Saudi Arabia

Horn of Africa: Al Shabaab attack Jubbaland Security Forces near Kenyan border; SFG reiterates support for Qatar and Turkey; SFG security officials meet to discuss al Shabaab

Yemen Security Brief

Al Qaeda released the sixth video in its series “Allah testifies that they are liars” on April 30. The video focuses on the Islamic State in Yemen, which has clashed with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in central Yemen in recent months.^[1]

Spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition Turki al Maliki held a press conference in Riyadh on April 30. Maliki confirmed that a Saudi Patriot missile defense system shot down thirteen al Houthi unmanned aircraft in Sayun city in Hadramawt governorate in eastern Yemen while President Abdu Rabb Mansour Hadi’s government convened Parliament there in early April.^[2]

Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the Southern Movement Fouad Rashid and President of the National Assembly of the Transitional Political Council for the South (STC) Ahmed Said bin Brik met in Aden city on April 30. The two discussed preparations to launch the second phase of the South-South Dialogue in Aden and reiterated their support for southern secession.^[3]

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN Abdullah al Mouallimi called for the UN to designate the al Houthi movement as a terrorist organization in a speech to the UN Security Council on April 30.^[4]

Al Houthi forces claimed to detonate three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) targeting Hadi government-aligned forces east of Rasha in Najran region in southern Saudi Arabia on April 30. Al Houthi forces separately claimed to launch a Zilzal-1 missile at a Saudi military camp near Akfa in Najran region.^[5]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

Al Shabaab militants conducted a grenade attack against Jubbaland Security Forces in Dhobley town in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia on April 29. The attack killed one soldier and injured six others.[6]

Somali Federal Government (SFG) Foreign Minister Ahmed Isse Awad pledged that Somalia will not enter into any alliance or bloc against Qatar and Turkey during a speech at Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha on April 30.[7]

SFG Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire held a meeting with the SFG’s Defense Minister and Somali National Army (SNA) chiefs to discuss the war against al Shabaab in the Somali capital Mogadishu on April 29. The SFG separately hosted a conference on counterterrorism for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Mogadishu from April 29 to April 30.[8]

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