Yemeni authorities said they had broken up two migrant smuggling networks operating from the Horn of Africa into the country, one in the eastern province of al-Mahra and another in the southern province of Abyan, with investigators linking one ring to a Houthi commander and the other to the head of an Ethiopian community in al-Mahra.
Security officials in al-Mahra said they arrested the Ethiopian community leader there after months of surveillance, accusing him of running one of the most active smuggling rings across the Yemeni-Omani border.
He allegedly used his position to facilitate trafficking operations, extort migrants and threaten to report them to authorities unless they paid up.
Rashid al-Salahi, deputy police chief and head of criminal investigations in the district of Shahn, said the man was being held pending transfer to prosecutors along with other suspects.
Investigators, he added, had gathered evidence that the accused exploited his role to lead an organized trafficking network, putting migrants’ lives at risk while profiting illegally.
In Abyan, police distributed video confessions from members of another smuggling ring, which they said was overseen and financed by Houthi commander Saleh Harmal from the group’s northern stronghold of Saada.
The suspects described receiving migrants on the southern coast before moving them north towards Saada, which has become a major hub for migrant trafficking into Gulf states.
One detainee, identified as Ahmed Abdo, admitted to providing logistical support, including buying equipment and hiring technicians, with funds sent through intermediaries from Saada to Abyan.
Others said they ferried migrants by boat or guided them overland, with payments transferred via money exchange companies in Sanaa and Saada.
All four suspects named Harmal and two other Houthi figures, Othman al-Mushir and Majed al-Shayba, as the men directing the network’s operations.
In the neighboring province of Shabwa, police said a boat carrying 120 undocumented migrants, mostly Ethiopian men, landed on the coast of Rudum district.
Governor Awad al-Wazir convened senior security and military officials to discuss the growing influx of Horn of Africa migrants, warning of security, social and health risks.
He urged that measures to confront irregular migration balance law enforcement with humanitarian principles, but criticized what he described as insufficient support from international aid agencies.
Local authorities pledged to step up patrols and restrict the illegal presence of migrants in towns and villages, while continuing to coordinate with state institutions to contain trafficking and safeguard stability.
