Gulf of Aden Security Review - September 25, 2019

Yemen: Saudi-led coalition announces failed al Houthi missile attacks; UAE-backed forces arrest Hadi government official in Hadramawt

Horn of Africa: Al Shabaab detonates IED in Mogadishu; Jubbaland postpones presidential inauguration after SFG suspends flights to Kismayo; suspected Salafi-jihadi militants attack villages in northern Mozambique

Yemen Security Brief

Saudi-led Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al Maliki stated on September 25 that al Houthi forces had fired two ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia from the al Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sana’a. The missiles landed in Amran and Sa’ada governorates in northern Yemen. The al Houthi movement offered Saudi Arabia a ceasefire on September 20, but both sides have continued to exchange attacks.[1]

UAE-backed Yemeni security forces arrested the media secretary for President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s Defense Minister in Mukalla port city in Hadramawt governorate in eastern Yemen on September 24. Local UAE-backed forces accused him of leading a terror cell that targets Saudi-led coalition forces.[2]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

Al Shabaab militants detonated a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) targeting a Somali National Army (SNA) Colonel in the Hodan district of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on September 25. The IED killed three SNA soldiers and wounded several others.[3]

Jubbaland State in southern Somalia postponed the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Ahmed Madobe on September 25 after the Somali Federal Government (SFG) suspended flights from Mogadishu to Jubbaland’s capital, Kismayo. The suspension disrupted dignitaries’ travel to the ceremony. The SFG has refused to recognize Madobe’s reelection and has challenged the constitutionality of the candidate selection process.[4]

Suspected Salafi-jihadi militants killed 12 people in Mbau and Mindumbe villages in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province on September 23. Northern Mozambique has faced a growing jihadist threat since 2017. Mozambican authorities are concerned about insecurity in Cabo Delgado ahead of national elections planned for October.[5]

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