Exclusive: intelligence sources have told Sheba Intelligence that Yemen’s Houthi movement is working to establish and activate a training camp in Somaliland, while separate information points to the arrival of additional UAE-linked fighters affiliated with Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council at another camp in the same area.

According to the sources, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi assigned a special committee headed by Hasan al-Kuhlani, the assistant defense minister for logistics in the Houthi-run, unrecognized government, to oversee the establishment and support of the camp.

The sources said the committee arranged the transfer of trained fighters, most of them Somalis and other Africans who had been recruited and trained in Houthi-run camps, alongside Yemeni fighters and foreign experts.

Information obtained by Sheba Intelligence indicates that since last April, al-Kuhlani has managed to gather large numbers of fighters at a camp located in the Golis Mountains area, near Odweyne in Somaliland’s Togdheer region. The sources described the area as mountainous, with small hills and dense trees, making it suitable for training, concealment and movement away from direct coastal surveillance.

The sources said that among those sent to the camp were experts in operating drones and missiles. They also claimed that the Houthis had managed to move parts of ballistic missiles and drones to the area in separate shipments. According to the information, the main objective is to build an alternative operational depth on the African side of the Gulf of Aden, allowing the group to maintain pressure on Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden if its military sites in Hodeidah and along Yemen’s western coast come under wider attack.

In a parallel track, Sheba Intelligence has obtained additional information supporting earlier reporting about the opening of a UAE-backed training camp for forces linked to the Southern Transitional Council in Somaliland. According to the sources, more than 150 fighters from the Shabwa and Hadramawt Elite Forces arrived at the camp in recent days.

The information, if verified on the ground, suggests that Somaliland is increasingly being used as a rear training and mobilization zone for Yemeni and African fighters outside Yemen’s direct geography. It also points to the possible expansion of Yemen’s conflict across the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden, where Houthi, UAE and STC calculations intersect with the security of Bab al-Mandab and international shipping lanes.

Somaliland’s strategic importance stems from its location near the Gulf of Aden, Bab al-Mandab and major global trade routes. Over recent years, Berbera and its surrounding areas have attracted growing regional and international attention because of their maritime, logistical and security value, including a long-standing UAE economic and logistical presence.

For the Houthis, any move toward Somaliland fits within the group’s expanding discourse on the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab. In a speech on Thursday, June 25, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi threatened to target any Israeli activity in Somaliland, saying his group was monitoring what it described as Israeli moves there. His remarks framed Somaliland as part of a wider struggle over the Gulf of Aden, Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea. Published reports also noted that al-Houthi’s warning came amid renewed military mobilization and fears of a broader internal confrontation in Yemen.

This rhetoric provides the Houthis with a political justification to increase their focus on the African shore under the banner of confronting Israel. However, the new information suggests that the group’s interest may go beyond rhetoric or attacks launched from Yemen’s western coast, and may include attempts to build alternative depth across the Gulf of Aden.

These developments come amid growing concern over smuggling, training and military knowledge-transfer networks between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, especially as reports have pointed to possible intersections between the Houthis and armed networks in Somalia, alongside renewed indicators of piracy and illicit maritime activity in the Gulf of Aden and waters near Somalia.

Sheba Intelligence could not independently verify all field details related to the exact locations of the camps or the nature of the reported weapons transfers. However, the private information aligns with open-source indicators showing Somaliland’s rising importance in the calculations of regional powers and armed actors operating around the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The development suggests that Somaliland is no longer merely a geographic margin to Yemen’s conflict. It may be emerging as a shadow arena for reorganizing military capabilities, training irregular forces and building alternative positions near one of the world’s most sensitive maritime chokepoints.