China arms Houthis, Houthis make pact with Al-Shabab that threatens Red Sea shipping

Al-Shabaab insurgents.  (Photo by Al-Kataib Media Foundation – film titled “Ambush in Bardali”, Public Domain, Wikipedia)

By Christine Douglass-Williams | July 3, 2025

The Red Sea is a critically important route for companies that are shipping goods from Asia to Europe. It accounts for about “15% of total global sea trade.” The Houthis have been disrupting those shipping routes since early 2024, thus affecting the price of goods, which are now costing more to ship and are taking longer to arrive, as the ships have faced attacks. This translated into higher prices for Western consumers in already bad economies. Then in early May, the Iran-aligned Houthis struck a deal with Trump to stop interrupting the shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Middle East. In turn, Trump said the U.S. would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen. The agreement, however, did not include Houthi strikes on Israel. While that deal gave a hope of reprieve for the shipping vessels at risk, a new report is now stating that the Houthis have struck what appears to be a simultaneous deal with al-Shabab.

“A Pact Between Al-Shabab and the Houthis Threatens Red Sea Shipping”, Sammar Khader, New Lines Magazine, July 1, 2025:

The Houthis and al-Shabab operate on opposite shores of one of the world’s most strategic waterways. Their two campaigns were unfolding separately, but behind the scenes were becoming increasingly intertwined. Both needed to acquire resources in the face of military pressure, and they struck a deal: The Houthis would supply al-Shabab with weapons and, in return, al-Shabab’s pirates would divert naval patrols’ attention toward themselves, allowing smuggled weapons and shipments to reach Yemen’s Houthi-controlled ports.

Being neighbors, Yemen and Somalia have long been connected through smuggling networks, trafficking everything from weapons and narcotics to people. Yazeed al-Jeddawy, a research coordinator at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, said the relationship between the Houthis and al-Shabab became more visible during a surge in piracy in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait (between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden) in early 2024. The trend was quickly linked to growing collaboration between the two groups.

At first glance, the relationship seems unlikely. The Houthis have spent years fighting fierce battles against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Sunni Islamists ideologically opposed to the Houthis’ Zaydi Shiism. But in recent years, this dynamic changed. The two groups quietly exchanged prisoners and, by early 2024, the Houthis were backing AQAP attacks on forces belonging to Yemen’s internationally recognized government, according to the United Nations. Now, the Houthis’ cooperation with al-Shabab, al Qaeda’s East African affiliate, no longer seems far-fetched. ….

…The Houthis would supply al-Shabab with weapons and, in return, al-Shabab’s pirates would divert naval patrols’ attention toward themselves, allowing smuggled weapons and shipments to reach Yemen’s Houthi-controlled ports.

According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the United Nations has “reported evidence of not just communication between the Houthis and al Shabaab but physical meetings in 2024 concerning the transference of materiel and training from the Houthis to al Shabaab in exchange for increased piracy and arms smuggling.”

So where this leaves the  ceasefire deal between the Houthis and Trump is a mystery. What is known is that jihadis never honor deals with infidels. The deals survive only as long as they remain useful for jihadis, giving them time to recalibrate or rebuild strength.

The possible implications of the Houthi/Al-Shabab alliance are far-reaching. The commander of the U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Michael Langley, warns that “a deeper Houthi presence in East Africa would be a greater threat to global trade and shipping, and bring a highly capable, belligerent actor into a region already struggling against [the Islamic State group] and al-Shabab.”

The Houthis are actively seeking more support than that of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Not only are they collaborating with al-Shabab; they have also benefited from China. US intelligence revealed in January that China was arming Houthi rebels in exchange for unimpeded Red Sea passage.

Clifford May, founder and president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said of China supplying arms to the Houthis that “by now it should be apparent that the West is literally under fire from an Axis of Aggressors: Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and its proxies, and Pyongyang. They are determined to establish a new international order based on their power and their rules. The United States and its European allies have not responded effectively to this reality.”

The Atlantic Council added an important point, that “for Beijing, its real battle starts on the economic front via the Islamic Republic proxies, where control of vital maritime corridors potentially yields greater advantages than any negotiated trade agreement.” So, “while overall shipping traffic through the Red Sea has plunged by nearly 70 percent since attacks began, the proportion of China-linked tonnage has surged, a silent testament to the effectiveness of the arrangement.” The competitive advantage for China is astronomical. China’s Xinhua News Agency has mocked what it called a “revealing” of American “impotence against non-traditional opponents like the Houthis, while claiming US military intervention has only triggered more resistance and exposed the decline of US economic influence and the gradual disintegration of its alliance system.”

The Middle East Institute, meanwhile, cautioned that the ceasefire deal between Trump and the Houthis has bought the Houthis time to “repair, recruit, and expand.” By all indications, that’s exactly what the group is doing, just as it continues to ally with enemies of America.

The Gulf International Forum has also noted that Moscow has “increased its cooperation with the Houthi rebels,” including the provision of “small arms,” and negotiating a “$10 million arms sale with the Houthi regime in Sana’a, presumably with some degree of support from Putin’s government.”

The Houthis simultaneously continue their attacks on Israel, as the group rallies international support among global like-minded “Islamic resistance” actors who seek to obliterate Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. As Israel’s multi-front war with its jihadist enemies drags on, it must be remembered that Israel’s enemies also want to weaken America internally and ultimately bring about its fall. Bloody jihad warfare has been raging for over 1,400 years, with the ongoing goal of establishing a global caliphate, while China’s history predates both America and Islam. The red-green axis is hostile to America and its foundation as a free, Judeo-Christian society.

The Jerusalem Center for Security and Public Affairs warns: “The Houthis in Yemen are not a rag-tag, flip-flop-shod, bunch of goat herders chewing Qat, as once imagined and portrayed. Today, the Houthis are a well-armed and dangerous army of more than 800,000 fighters threatening Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, the U.S. Navy, and international shipping, with drones, ballistic missiles, and rockets. International shipping is under the constant threat of Houthi piracy.”

Beyond shipping, the Yemen government warned last year that the Houthis pose a threat to the world’s digital infrastructure, since the Red Sea is “one of the three most important meeting points for cables” in the world. Should the Houthis seek revenge on the US, Yemen stated that the Houthis have the capability of cutting off a fifth of the world’s Internet. Meanwhile, to appease jihadists is to embolden them. Despite a global gang-up, Israel has managed to subdue Hamas, Hizballah and Iran—all of which had a global reach as they infiltrated the West.

In the words of the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, following the Houthis’ most recent attack on Israel: “B2 bombers need to visit Yemen.”