Yemen's anti-Houthi National Resistance Forces (NRF) have announced the discovery of bodies of Somali Al Shabab fighters among Houthi casualties on the west coast.
The announcement comes after reports of increasing co-ordination between the Iran-backed group and armed factions in the Horn of Africa.
The NRF's military media said the fighters' identities were verified through documents and belongings found on their bodies, confirming their affiliation with Al Shabab, whose presence within Houthi ranks indicates co-ordination between the Iran-backed militia and armed groups across the region, the NRF added.
A recent report by the Century Foundation, a non-partisan, US-based think tank, details how the Houthis have built smuggling and training networks stretching across the Red Sea into the Horn of Africa and Sudan, deepening ties with Al Shabab – a group linked to Al Qaeda – and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Al Shabab opened communications with the Houthis in 2024, seeking help in acquiring anti-aircraft weapons, drones and shoulder-fired rockets to counter aerial attacks, including from the US, the report found. There are no signs yet that the Somali group has obtained or used any of the advanced weaponry, but the two recent discoveries of Al Shabab operatives fighting alongside the Houthis in Yemen suggest their relationship is deepening.
The report describes the Houthis' playbook for expansion in the Horn of Africa as one borrowed from their own patrons, developed over decades by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
Led by Gen Tariq Saleh, a nephew of the late former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the NRF is a coalition of anti-Houthi forces loyal to the country's internationally recognised government.
The NRF has been party to renewed fighting in Yemen, which has escalated since the Houthis stepped up attacks on government positions in recent months, raising fears of a return to all-out fighting four years after a fragile truce was struck. Although the UN-mediated truce expired only months after it was agreed to in 2022, fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces had largely subsided in the years since.
The Houthis last month resumed attacks on international shipping in the Bab Al Mandeb strait in support of Iran.
