Somalia joins Saudi coalition to counter Houthis in Red Sea

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia has formally thrown its weight behind a Saudi-engineered coalition designed to shield the Red Sea’s arteries of global trade from Houthi attacks, aligning itself with a bloc of nations racing to contain an escalation between Yemen’s Iran-backed movement and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The announcement lands just weeks after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud cautioned the breakaway northern region of Somaliland against entangling itself in the widening Houthi-Israel confrontation, warning that any such move would carry dire consequences for both the region and Somalia at large.

A Coalition Takes Shape in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday that it had convened chiefs of staff and senior military representatives to advance the Kingdom’s initiative to stand up a multinational defensive maritime coalition against the Houthis – a bloc Riyadh intends to lead and headquarter on its own soil.

According to the ministry’s statement, the gathering drew participation from 43 countries out of 51 formally invited, alongside a delegation representing the European Union, with attendance split between in-person representation and video conferencing. Saudi officials described the turnout as evidence of “growing international interest in enhancing defensive maritime cooperation” and stressed the need to “unify efforts to confront common threats” to international shipping lanes falling within the coalition’s designated zone of responsibility.

Delegates worked through the architecture of the emerging bloc, reviewing a draft charter, supporting reference documents, and the coalition’s proposed organizational structure, command-and-control arrangements, and operational mechanisms. The stated objective, per the ministry, is to build “an effective institutional framework” capable of confronting shared maritime threats across three of the world’s most strategically sensitive waterways: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden.

Participants agreed that military planners from nations wishing to join would continue working through the coming phase to finalize the charter, complete the organizational and command framework, and stand up the technical teams needed to operationalize the alliance – running in parallel with each willing country’s domestic ratification procedures ahead of a formal signing and launch.

Somalia Among 14 Founding Signatories

In a significant outcome of the Riyadh meeting, 14 countries issued a joint statement declaring their backing for the coalition and welcoming the consensus reached on its foundational arrangements. Somalia stands among them, alongside Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan, and Djibouti.

The Saudi Ministry of Defense noted that additional participating nations voiced support for the initiative as well, and are now working through internal procedures before formally joining the statement – with the door left open to them, and to any other willing country, once national approval processes are complete.

Somalia’s inclusion places it in company with fellow Red Sea and Horn of Africa littoral states Djibouti and Sudan, reinforcing reporting that Red Sea littoral states central to the effort, including Egypt and Sudan, had agreed to take part alongside Djibouti and Somalia.

The Trigger: A Houthi Blockade and a Region on Edge

The Riyadh coalition did not emerge in a vacuum. On July 20, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group announced what it described as a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and has since claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on Saudi-linked vessels. At least one Saudi-owned tanker has been struck, pushing other vessels to either turn back or reroute through the costlier, longer Suez Canal passage. The disruption has rattled energy markets: Brent crude has surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since May, underscoring the strain the standoff is placing on global oil trade.

The stakes are compounded by the Kingdom’s shifting export logistics. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed amid the wider Iran conflict, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea terminal at Yanbu has emerged as a critical artery for the country’s oil exports, leaving Riyadh with little room to tolerate a prolonged Houthi campaign along its western coastline.

Somaliland’s Israel Gambit and Mohamud’s Warning

Somalia’s move to formally back the Saudi-led bloc cannot be separated from the diplomatic storm brewing to its north. Weeks earlier, President Mohamud had directly cautioned Somaliland’s administration against courting the Houthi-Israel conflict, arguing that the breakaway territory’s overtures toward Israel – including its recognition by Tel Aviv and a subsequent state visit – risked importing a war that neither Somaliland nor Somalia proper could contain.

Mohamud has repeatedly framed Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, and any accompanying military foothold along the Gulf of Aden, as an existential threat to Somali sovereignty rather than a purely northern affair. He has previously argued that Israel’s recognition of Somaliland was driven chiefly by three considerations: Somaliland’s potential accession to the Abraham Accords, the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, and the establishment of an Israeli military base along the Gulf of Aden – a prospect he has warned could draw the Houthis, and by extension Iran, directly into Somali territorial waters. Mohamud has cautioned that if Israel turns Somaliland into a proxy platform to strike at others’ interests, those adversaries would retaliate against Somaliland and Somalia alike, a scenario he has called anything but favorable for the wider region.

Against that backdrop, Mogadishu’s decision reads as more than a security gesture. It binds Somalia’s foreign policy to the Gulf Arab camp opposing Houthi and Iranian expansion – even as Somaliland edges toward the opposite pole.

Why the Bab el-Mandeb Matters

The stretch of water at the center of this diplomatic scramble is not a peripheral shipping lane. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, connecting the southern Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, ranks among the world’s most consequential corridors for global trade and energy shipments. Houthi attacks on shipping through the strait first erupted in 2023, framed by the group as an act of solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war, but the waterway’s importance has only grown since, serving as a critical alternative export route as the Strait of Hormuz came under threat amid the broader Iran conflict.

For Saudi Arabia, the calculus is now existential rather than merely commercial. Analysts have argued the Kingdom “cannot afford to let this blockade stand,” given how directly the Houthi campaign threatens one of its few remaining viable oil export corridors.

Skepticism Amid the Show of Unity

Not every reaction to Thursday’s announcement has been celebratory. Public commentary beneath Saudi state media’s own coverage of the summit has questioned whether a Riyadh-led coalition can actually deliver results, with one widely circulated response predicting that, absent decisive action, the Houthis could end up controlling the Bab al-Mandeb outright within years and charging vessels for passage – a blunt reminder that skepticism toward Gulf-led security initiatives runs deep, even among audiences sympathetic to Riyadh.

What Comes Next

For now, the coalition remains a framework rather than a fielded force. Military planners from Somalia and the other 13 signatory nations – plus any additional states that complete their domestic procedures – are expected to spend the coming weeks finalizing the charter, settling command structures, and building the technical apparatus needed before the alliance can formally launch and begin operations in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden.

Whether that framework can translate into a credible deterrent against the Houthi movement that has already disrupted global shipping for two consecutive years will determine whether Somalia’s bet on Riyadh – and its implicit rebuke of Somaliland’s Israel outreach – proves to be a strategic masterstroke or merely a diplomatic gesture overtaken by events at sea.

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