Yemen’s foreign minister: The Houthis are building a “Red Sea Axis” with groups in the Horn of Africa

Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Afrah al-Zouba, has stated that the Iran-backed Houthis have expanded cooperation with affiliated groups in the Horn of Africa, describing the coalition taking shape as a dangerous “Red Sea Axis”.

“The evidence is clear: arms transfers, training, smuggling and joint operations are linking actors that were once treated as separate threats,” Yemen’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on X, as Al Jazeera reports.

The warning comes in the wake of the Houthis’ Red Sea campaign against merchant ships, which has continued to threaten international shipping during the US–Iran war. The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden region remains one of the hottest theatres of the conflict, with repeated attacks on ships and energy infrastructure.

It is worth recalling that just a few hours earlier, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency advised airlines to avoid Saudi Arabian airspace after the Houthi attacks, in another sign of the conflict expanding beyond the main front.