Drone Transfers Between Houthis And Somali Terror Groups Threaten Region

Shipments of high-tech weapons from Yemen’s Houthi rebels to terror groups in Somalia could undermine security across the Horn of Africa, experts say.

The past year has seen a flow of drones and other weaponry across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen to Somalia at a time when al-Shabaab and Islamic State-Somalia (ISSOM) have suffered territorial losses at the hands of the Somali National Army and its allies.

The capture of seven men by Puntland regional authorities in 2024 demonstrated the growing bond between Houthis and Somali terror groups. Security officials discovered that the men were transporting five kamikaze drones believed to have come from the Houthis.

The drones were commercially available quadcopters modified to carry explosives. The discovery boosted concerns that both al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab and its rivals in ISSOM are putting aside their ideological differences and working with the Houthis — and, by extension, the Houthis’ patron Iran — to spread weaponized drones from the Middle East to African terror groups.

“This situation has heightened the sources of instability in the broader region,” analysts Ibrahim Jalal and Adnan al-Jabarni wrote recently for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A few months after Puntland authorities intercepted the kamikaze drones, ISSOM launched its first drone attacks against Puntland security forces.

Al-Shabaab has gone as far as holding meetings in Somalia with Houthi representatives to discuss acquiring high-level weaponry and the training to operate it. Some of those weapons may have come to the Houthis from Iran.

“Both groups are keen on trading advanced systems, such as surface-to-air missiles and attack drones, which are not commonly available from the Gulf of Aden’s smuggling network,” analyst Ghada Soliman wrote recently for the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. Soliman says the Houthis serve as a bridge between Iran and al-Shabaab, giving the Iranians influence over the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a chokepoint for global shipping at the southern end of the Red Sea.

“It is important for Iran to support the Somali terrorist group and provide it with the training and intelligence needed for conducting operations beyond the Gulf of Aden and into the western Indian Ocean alongside Houthi attacks,” Soliman wrote.

Beyond their relations with Iran, the Houthis have established their own weapons program. The group opened a large-scale drone factory in 2018 and have been manufacturing their own fixed wing-style drones for use in both intelligence-gathering and kamikaze attacks.

The Houthis also have compiled a store of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-ship mines, and unmanned surface vehicles — sea drones — that they continue to deploy against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

According to analysts at Conflict Armament Research (CAR), the Houthis are trying to develop drones powered by hydrogen fuel cells that would expand their operational capabilities in terms of time and distance. Researchers with the U.K.-based CAR have examined at least eight different Houthi-manufactured drones to track the technology as it spreads to other terror groups.

“Enhancing knowledge of non-state groups’ capacity to obtain and use commercially available components for lethal means, and the lines of supply with which such material is procured, is key to identifying the parties responsible for their supply,” CAR analysts wrote in a 2020 report on the Houthis’ drone-building capabilities.

Despite the growing relationship between the Houthis and Somali terrorists, CAR analysts say there is no evidence so far that al-Shabaab has begun adding kamikaze drones to its arsenal of assault rifles and improvised explosive devices.

However, observers say it’s likely only a matter of time before al-Shabaab launches its own drone attacks against security forces in Somalia. The threat means authorities in Somalia, African Union peacekeepers and neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya must boost their aerial defenses, according to analyst Karen Allen with South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies.

“Owning drones is important for armed groups’ power projection,” Allen wrote recently. “Peacekeepers know that for now, assault rifles are still the weapon of choice in Somalia. But sharing technology and expertise with a key player in Yemen’s complex proxy war could recast the conflict in the Horn of Africa and beyond.”