Gulf of Aden Security Review - October 17, 2019

Yemen: Al Houthi movement to allow Red Cross to visit Saudi prisoners; UAE withdraws troops and equipment from Taiz governorate

Horn of Africa: Al Shabaab detonates IEDs targeting Ethiopian troops in Bay region; al Shabaab executes civilians in Mogadishu; AQAP official praises al Shabaab attack on US airbase

Yemen Security Brief

The al Houthi movement will honor a request by the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Saudi prisoners in detention centers in Yemen. The al Houthi movement released prisoners, including three Saudi nationals, on September 30.[1]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) withdrew numerous armored vehicles and personnel from Taiz governorate on October 16. This comes after the UAE withdrew 200 troops from Aden on October 8 as part of Saudi-led negotiations to end a standoff between the Transitional Political Council of the South (STC) and the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The STC seized Aden, the de facto capital of Yemen, in August.[2]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

Al Shabaab detonated two roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in two separate attacks targeting Ethiopian troops serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) outside of Baidoa town, in Somalia’s southwestern Bay region, on October 16. The explosions killed at least four Ethiopian soldiers.[3]

Al Shabaab executed three civilians and injured several others in an unspecified area of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on October 16.[4]

An al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) official, Ibrahim al Qosi alias Khubayb al Sudani, released an audio speech on October 16 praising al Shabaab’s attack on a US airbase in southern Somalia on September 30. Al Shabaab attempted to breach the base with suicide vehicle-borne IEDs but caused no casualties.[5]

Visit our Yemen, Somalia, and United Arab Emirates storystreams.