Gulf of Aden Security Review - November 20, 2019

Yemen: Saudi King says kingdom seeks peace talks in Yemen; al Houthis release Saudi and South Korean vessels in Red Sea

Horn of Africa: AFRICOM conducts airstrike targeting al Shabaab in Middle Jubba region; al Shabaab assassinates former SFG official in Mogadishu; security forces launch operations in Galmudug State ahead of elections

Yemen Security Brief

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saudi stated on November 20 that a recently signed power-sharing agreement between President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government and a southern Yemeni separatist group could open the door to wider peace talks in Yemen. Saudi Arabia brokered the Riyadh Agreement, which the Hadi government and Transitional Political Council for the South (STC) signed on November 5, to end a standoff over Yemen’s de facto capital, Aden.[1]

The al Houthi movement released two South Korean naval vessels and one Saudi vessel on November 19, two days after the group seized the vessels in the Red Sea. The Saudi vessel was towing a South Korean rig at the time of the seizure.[2]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) conducted an airstrike targeting an al Shabaab militant near Qunyo Barrow town in Middle Jubba region in southern Somalia on November 19. The airstrike killed one militant.[3]

Al Shabaab assassinated a former Somali Federal Government (SFG) diplomat near the Aden Adde International Airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on November 20. Al Shabaab separately attacked Somali National Army troops in the Ex-Control Afgoi area of Mogadishu on November 20.[4]

SFG and Galmudug State security forces set up checkpoints and launched clearance operations in Dhusamareb, the capital of Galmudug State in north-central Somalia, on November 19. The security operations occurred ahead of regional elections planned for late 2019.[5]

Visit our Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia storystreams.