Houthi Chief Vows to Attack Ships Going Around Red Sea to Africa’s Cape of Good Hope

The leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah terrorist organization, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced on Thursday that his jihadists would expand their attacks on random commercial ships beyond the greater Red Sea region in an attempt to disrupt shipping routes around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

The Houthis, as Ansar Allah are commonly known, launched a terror campaign against ships attempting to transit around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait surrounding Yemen into the Red Sea after declaring war on Israel in October, a move meant to support fellow Iran-backed terror outfit Hamas following its gruesome massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7. The Houthis claim that their attacks are an attempt to stop Israel from continuing self-defense operations in the Hamas stronghold of Gaza meant to prevent a sequel to the atrocities committed in October.

The Houthis claim, falsely, to be the legitimate government of Yemen. They have controlled the nation’s capital, Sana’a, since a siege in 2014, which launched their ongoing civil war against the true government of the country, currently headquartered in the southern city of Aden.

Houthi leaders claimed that they intended to inhibit commerce with Israel and that they would only target ships attempting to travel to and from Israel, then expanded their attacks to ships affiliated with America and Britain, a response to coalition airstrikes on Houthi targets. The U.S. and U.K. militaries authorized airstrikes meant to deteriorate the Houthis’ ability to target commercial ships. President Joe Biden admitted in January, however, that the attacks were not working.

 

While insisting that global shipping is safe and only ships with ties to Israel, Britain, and America will face Houthi attacks, the Houthis have bombed ships with no overt relationship to those countries and even targeted ships affiliated with Houthi allies, such as Russia, China, and Iran. The unpredictable nature of the attacks has resulted in the world’s largest shipping companies rerouting away from the Red Sea region and sailing south around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. By January, the Financial Times reported that container ship traffic through the Suez Canal had fallen 90 percent year-on-year.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Thursday that the Houthis would soon begin bombing the ships rerouting to Africa.

“By the grace of Allah and His assistance, we aim to prevent the passage of ships associated with the Israeli enemy even through the Indian Ocean and from South Africa towards the Cape of Good Hope,” Houthi declared, according to the Iranian state outlet PressTV. “For this important, advanced, and significant step, we have begun to implement our operations related to it through the Indian Ocean and from South Africa towards the Cape of Good Hope.”

“Our human conscience, our religion, our morals, our dignity, our pride, our belonging to Islam, prohibit us from watching the oppression of Palestine or remaining silent about it,” he declared.

The route around the Cape of Good Hope is already significantly more cumbersome than cutting through the Suez Canal in Egypt from Asia to Europe and vice versa. The longer route can take as much as two weeks longer than through the Mediterranean and is significantly more expensive given added fuel and security costs. Using African ports unused to high levels of traffic to refuel and navigate is also significantly more difficult logistically. In December, as ships began to redirect, ports around Africa began reporting major traffic jams and a struggle to keep fuel supplies high to be able to service all the newcomer vessels.

In his remarks on Thursday, Houthi claimed that his terrorists had already launched attacks at “unprecedented ranges,” including three in the Indian Ocean. He tallied the number of ships terrorized by his jihadis at 73 since October and claimed that U.S. forces had conducted 32 “bombing raids and strikes” on Houthi targets, “which, as usual, were unsuccessful.”

“The impact of the American raids and bombings is negligible regarding our missile and drone capabilities and in terms of continuing operations effectively to counter it, and in preventing ships associated with the Israeli enemy,” Houthi boasted.

PressTV, the Iranian state outlet, also claimed on Thursday – citing anonymous sources speaking to the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik – that the Houthis now possess a hypersonic missile “with high destructive capability.”

“Yemen plans to begin manufacturing it for use in attacks in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel,” the alleged source claimed.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the Pentagon division responsible for Middle East activities, documented the firing of two Houthi missiles towards the Red Sea on Thursday that reportedly did not damage any “U.S. or coalition ships,” the latest known Houthi terror attacks in the region. CENTCOM also claimed a successful attack taking out two Houthi drones and nine anti-ship missiles:

March 14 Red Sea Update

Between 6:50 a.m. on March 14 and 12:40 a.m. on March 15 (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden and two additional ASBMs towards the Red… pic.twitter.com/Mck2CEEZSC

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 15, 2024

During his State of the Union address last week, Biden boasted that he would continue to order “further measures to protect our people and military personnel” in the Middle East.

“Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran. That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” Biden said. “I’ve ordered strikes to degrade the Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. Forces in the region.”

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