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Yemeni Government Strengthens Grip on Coastline

Yemen Coastguard on maneuvers
Scenes from Yemen Coastguard video highlighting enhanced operations

Published Jun 3, 2026 10:16 AM by The Maritime Executive

 

With the Strait of Hormuz still largely closed, Red Sea ports have risen in importance as the means to access the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf. But while Saudi oil traffic in particular passing through the Bab el-Mandeb has risen in recent months, shippers are still nervous about a resumption of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis, for the moment, are keeping their own counsel and are not responding to pressure from Iran to cause disruption – but circumstances could change at relatively short notice. So local security conditions are important, particularly as U.S. naval forces are busy elsewhere.

In this context, the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG) of Yemen continues to consolidate its authority over semi-autonomous military organizations, which used to dominate the forces opposed to the rebel Houthis in the north of the country, but also in adjoining sea areas. Emirati forces, which used to equip and sponsor militias aligned with the now largely defunct Southern Transition Council, have now withdrawn their support, and their role in many areas has been taken over by the Saudis instead. 

There are still divisions within the forces arrayed against the Houthis. Southern separatists still have sway in some areas, for example, on the island of Socotra. There is also opposition to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islah party in some IRG-controlled areas, and autonomous sentiment is still strong in the Hadramawt and Marah provinces in the east of the country. But the fact that the Saudis have now become the sole source of external funding in Yemen has persuaded many of the previously quarreling factions within the IRG to bury their differences and to come together.

This is particularly noticeable in the south-western provinces bordering the Red Sea, which are controlled by the IRG. Previously sponsored by the Emiratis, General Tariq Saleh has switched paymaster and is now an enthusiastic recipient of Saudi patronage. Naval units of his National Resistance Forces (NRF) led by General Tariq under the previous Emirati sponsors, enjoyed some success against arms smugglers operating between Iran and Somalia, through the Bab el-Mandeb up to the Hodeida area. These NRF naval units appear to have been revived and are now working with, but have not yet been integrated into the Yemeni Coastguard.

 

 

The new coastguard force also appears to now be operating with two new types of radar-equipped patrol boats, possibly surplus stock originally from Saudi sources. At least four 11-meter Chinese-designed catamarans suitable for inshore waters and eight 22-meter patrol boats manufactured in France by Chantier Naval Couach, as well as numerous speed boats, took part in a parade at sea on May 22 to mark the 36th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Yemen.  

The new Coastguard Red Sea Sector appears to have been allocated to the NRF naval force. The sector is responsible for the coastal waters between Perim and the Hanish Islands, and up the coast to the front line between IRG and Houthi forces south of Hodeida. Harbor facilities on the Hanish Islands are to be improved with Saudi funding. The sea area between the Djibouti coastline and Perim Island is 11 nautical miles wide, much narrower than the Strait of Hormuz. So if the new Coastguard Red Sea Sector could control movement in the southern Red Sea, it could restrict Iranian resupply to the Houthis from Iran, although the Houthis would still be able to smuggle in material from Eritrea across the Red Sea. 

 

Chinese-designed 11m inshore patrol catamaran (Video from @aljoumhouriyatv)

 

Further south in the Gulf of Aden, through which the Maritime Ship Transit Corridor passes, the reinvigoration of the Yemeni Coastguard continues, in a project sponsored by the Saudis, the United Kingdom, and EU donors. In November, the British Minister responsible for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, visited the Yemeni Coastguard's facility in Aden and was taken on a tour of the 200GT patrol boat Aden (IMO 4698611), which British aid helped refurbish for the Yemeni Coastguard. The Mayun, a new Coastguard patrol boat sponsored by the UK aid program, is now based on Perim Island, and covers the Bab el-Mandeb area. To be further effective, the Coastguard needs both patrols at sea, but also an improved maritime intelligence picture, relying not just on AIS feeds but also on a rebuilding of the coastal radar coverage with which Yemen used to be well equipped in pre-civil war days.