Yedioth Ahronoth: Ansar Allah is expanding into Africa and getting very close to Israel
The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported, Saturday, that the Yemeni Ansar Allah group is expanding into Africa and approaching Israel, considering that the danger is greater than what we see now.
The Israeli newspaper noted that the United States is frustrated by the ‘limited impact’ of the operation against Iran’s more independent wing, which is now expanding into one of the most strategic regions for the Shiite axis and Israel.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the Houthis are sending their weapons to additional countries – and in an unexpected and extremely dangerous region.
In recent years, the Ansar Allah group has spread, among other places, to the Horn of Africa region, which includes Djibouti, Somalia (as well as Somaliland and Puntland), Eritrea, and Ethiopia.
Their control over these regions has gradually become important, with the aim of consolidating their presence and moving closer to Israel.
Moreover, the Horn of Africa and Sudan are of strategic importance: the region is partly on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, opposite Yemen, and partly along the Red Sea.
Influence there—along with influence in Yemen—serves to enforce the blockade on Israel and could also help provide aid to Hamas in Gaza.
Yedioth Ahronoth noted that, for example, in Somalia, the group has expanded its cooperation with the Sunni al Shabaab organization, which is considered an affiliate of al Qaeda in East Africa, as well as with ISIS.
According to reports published in recent months, including from the UN Security Council, al Shabaab has held meetings in Somalia with representatives of Ansar Allah and requested assistance with weapons and training.
In return, al Shabaab pledged to expand its pirate activities, which wreak havoc at sea in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia, attacking commercial vessels and disrupting freedom of navigation.
The Somali al Shabaab members also pledged to the group to collect ransoms from the captured vessels.
In Djibouti, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that “the Houthis’ influence in Djibouti may make it easier to close shipping lanes en route to Israel”.
The Israeli newspaper cited the story of a Djiboutian citizen from the Afar tribe who recruited young men for Ansar Allah in exchange for a fee, noting that the lure was an Iranian promise to the Afar tribe that Tehran would support the tribe economically and militarily until it was liberated from the rule of Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, just as it supported Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Among other things, they promised to be a great and effective force’ in the Red Sea.
There have been reports of their desire to establish a presence in North Africa as well.
They have a natural connection to African history, much more so than the Iranians, and so they are spearheading this move.
The newspaper noted that, “At present, the United States has no announced plan to overthrow the Ansar Allah regime in Yemen”.
