Yemen closes waterways against terrorist infiltration from Africa

By Faisal Darem in Yemen
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-02-24

[KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images] Yemen coast guard gets ready for patrol.

Yemen's Ministry of the Interior said it ordered the coast guards and security forces of the coastal provinces to shut down the main waterways against infiltrators into Yemen from the Horn of Africa.

Yemen continues to ward off terrorist elements from the Horn of Africa, especially after the Somali Al-Shabab al-Mujahideen movement announced its intention to support al-Qaeda elements in Yemen.

Major General Fadl al-Qousi, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, told Al-Shorfa that the security forces maintain constant surveillance of Somali refugees in Yemen to prevent terrorist elements from using the cover of asylum to gain access to Yemen.

However, he stressed the government's commitment to its duties towards Somali refugees, saying they are receiving the same care and attention as before and that the government is careful to provide them with suitable living conditions during their stay in Yemen.

Al-Qousi said that the ministry is taking seriously al-Qaeda's threats to control the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. The pre-emptive measure by the Yemeni government serves to tighten security to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Yemen and to secure regional waterways, including Bab-el-Mandab.

"Al-Qaeda's threats to Yemen are open threats just as the security forces consider their war against al-Qaeda an open war," al-Qousi said.

Concerning the coast guards' ability to address this issue despite their limited resources, al-Qousi said that "the task has been entrusted to all air and maritime security and military forces, and we have also coordinated with the leaders of the coastal provinces to secure the Yemeni coast."

Shojaa al-Mahdi, the coast guards' director of operations, said that the closure of the main waterways against infiltrators from the Horn of Africa was essentially aimed at fighting illegal African migration to Yemen, owing to the length of the Yemeni coast, which is 2,500 km long.

"The coast guards are not deployed in all the Yemeni coastal provinces but only in some of them," Al-Mahdi said. "The navy monitors illegal migration and prevents the infiltration of terrorist elements into Yemen in the other provinces."

He added that the coast guards had a mechanism in place to carry out the ministry's decision to watch the waterways and prevent terrorist infiltration, whether in the refugee landing centres or on the coasts. The mechanism consisted of two elements: security and health.

"Security measures include the interrogation and registration of [illegal immigrants] to issue them a refugee identification card before handing them over to the camps of the UN High Commission for Refugees, which supervises their stay according to international laws," al-Mahdi said, adding that Somali smugglers who traffic in humans and smuggle them into various destinations on the Yemeni coast have been arrested.

"'The coast guards work within their limited resources to monitor, chase and arrest these elements for interrogation," he said.

Abd al-Ilah Sha'ih, a political analyst specializing in al-Qaeda affairs, questioned the ability and resources of the Yemeni forces to block the waterways, saying that they do not have the ability to implement such measures.

Sha'ih told Al-Shorfa that "al-Qaeda, in their press statements, thanked the Al-Shabab al-Mujahideen movement for their announcement to support members of al-Qaeda in Yemen, given that al-Qaeda in Yemen doesn't need the Mujahideen and that it actually exports its elements outside of the region."

Sa'id al-Shahri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said at the beginning of February that his group wants to control the strategic straits of Bab al-Mandab in co-operation with the Mujahideen in Somalia. He also thanked the movement in Somalia for sending combatants to fight on the side of al-Qaeda in Yemen.

It is estimated that the number of African refugees in Yemen amounts to 700,000, of which 90% are Somalis. However, the number of the officially registered refugees is around 170,000.

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