Insecurity in West Asia and the Horn of Africa is surging, as a new front in the Palestine-Israel conflict has opened in the Red Sea. Soon after the 7 October escalation in the Gaza Strip, Yemen’s Houthi rebels—officially known as Ansar Allah—began throttling international trade in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. About 30 per cent of global container traffic and more than 1 million barrels of crude oil flow each day through the Suez Canal, which can only be reached through this strait that connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. Despite a barrage of recent US and UK missile strikes on Yemen, the Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until Israel allows humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. In an exclusive interview at African Stream’s offices in Nairobi, Pan-African scholar PLO Lumumba told us the situation is complicated by freedom fighters being called terrorists, and vice versa. He also warned the fighting may draw in African countries from the Horn of Africa.
Reshaping The Narrative
