Gulf of Aden Security Review February 11, 2020

Yemen: Al Houthis attack hospitals in Ma’rib governorate; Saudi-led coalition and al Houthis begin UN-backed prisoner swap negotiations

 Horn of Africa: FBI begins training Kenyan counterterrorism officers; al Shabaab defector surrenders to Somali authorities; al Shabaab IED kills SNA troops; al Shabaab fires mortar at AMISOM base

 Yemen Security Brief

Al Houthi militants bombed al Jafra and al Saudi hospitals in Majzar district in northern Ma’rib governorate on February 7, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). The bombings occurred after al Houthi militants attacked a residential neighborhood in Ma’rib. UNOCHA announced that the bombings hampered health services for thousands of displaced people in the governorate.^[1]

The Saudi-led coalition and the al Houthi movement began UN-backed negotiations in the Jordanian capital Amman on February 10 to discuss a prisoner swap. A UN deputy spokesman stated that this third round of negotiations also focused on re-opening Sana’a International Airport in the Yemeni capital. The first UN medical flight flew from the capital Sana’a to Jordan in early February, marking the first civilian flight out of Yemen since 2015. ^[2]  

Horn of Africa Security Brief

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of State announced a training program for a cohort of Kenyan police and intelligence officers at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, on February 10. The program’s graduates will establish the first Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) outside of the US in Nairobi, Kenya. Planning for the initiative began after al Shabaab’s attack on Nairobi’s DusitD2 Hotel in January 2019. The attack killed more than 20 people, including one American.[3]

Ugaas Mohamed Moalim, a clan elder in Somalia’s southern Jubbaland state, defected from al Shabaab and surrendered to local Somali forces on February 9. Moalim admitted to spying and raising money for the militant organization. Somalia offers leniency to repentant al Shabaab members that renounce violence and extremism. Moalim’s defection follows that of a senior al Shabaab foreign fighter in October 2019.^[4]

Al Shabaab detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) targeting a convoy of Somali soldiers at a checkpoint in Kahda district in the capital Mogadishu on February 10. The explosion killed three soldiers and wounded five others.^[5]

Al Shabaab launched mortar rockets on an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base near the town of Halgan in Somalia’s central Hiraan district on February 10. AMISOM has yet to comment on the attack. Al Shabaab launched a similar mortar attack on an AMISOM base in the neighboring Middle Shabelle region on February 2.^[6]