A relationship between Yemen’s Houthis and Somalia’s al-Shabaab has developed beyond weapons smuggling into direct exchanges of personnel, military training and operational cooperation, according to a new investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

The investigation reports that a four-member Houthi delegation travelled across the Gulf of Aden in June 2026 and reached Jilib, the de facto centre of al-Shabaab-controlled territory in southern Somalia. The visit reportedly focused on military cooperation, weapons supplies and training.

The findings come after a United Nations panel reported in October 2025 that the relationship between the two groups had “evolved”. The panel said it had received information, supported by documentary evidence, about Houthi engineers travelling to Jilib to train al-Shabaab members in improvised explosive devices, drone adaptation and weapons maintenance.

A separate August report by Century International estimated that between 120 and several hundred al-Shabaab members had received training at Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen. The report said the instruction included small arms, explosives and basic drone operations. It also said as many as 400 Somali nationals had been facilitated in travelling to Yemen for military and ideological training, based on evidence gathered from a Somali intermediary detained in Yemen.

The Wall Street Journal cited a US military intelligence official as saying at least 100 al-Shabaab fighters had travelled to Yemen for training. One group reportedly spent about three months in Saada learning to assemble drones and operate first-person-view systems, while Houthi instructors also travelled to Somalia.

The reported cooperation also involves arms procurement. The Journal said it reviewed a weapons list that al-Shabaab had submitted through an intermediary and that included anti-aircraft weapons, rockets, sniper rifles, attack drones, anti-armour missiles and night-vision equipment.

US government records show that weapons trafficking between Yemen and Somalia predates the reported Houthi-al-Shabaab cooperation. In 2022, the US Treasury Department sanctioned a network involved in weapons transfers to al-Shabaab and other armed groups, describing maritime routes between Yemen and Somalia and the use of fishing vessels to conceal shipments.

The Journal identified Somali intermediary Jibril Yahya Ali, known as “One-Armed”, as a key link between the two sides. It reported that he helped obtain military-grade weapons from Houthi networks and arrange their transfer to al-Shabaab. He had previously studied veterinary medicine in Yemen and operated businesses in Mogadishu, according to the investigation.

Ali was killed near al-Ghaydah in Yemen’s al-Mahrah governorate on 12 February 2026 while travelling by car with his Yemeni wife, according to the Journal. Two US sources told the newspaper that an American strike was responsible, but US Central Command said it had not conducted a military operation at the location, while the CIA did not confirm whether it was responsible.

The reported cooperation has also acquired a strategic dimension around the Gulf of Aden. The Journal said the Houthi delegation discussed concerns over a possible Israeli military presence around Berbera in Somaliland.

Israel currently has no officially acknowledged military base in Somaliland. Somaliland’s defence minister told Reuters in June that Israel was providing military and police training but denied negotiations to establish a base. Separately, reports have documented growing Israeli-Somaliland security ties and discussions over possible foreign military facilities at Berbera.

The UN panel has described the Gulf of Aden arms trade as increasingly two-way: weapons have moved from Yemen to Somalia, while Somalia has also been used as a transit route for weapons heading towards Yemen. It said authorities had investigated around 70 Somali nationals allegedly involved in weapons smuggling linked to the Houthis.

Century International says the Houthi outreach remains at an early stage but could give the Yemeni movement greater reach along the African side of the Gulf of Aden while providing al-Shabaab with access to additional military expertise and technology.