This is a new official opponent for Kyiv. Houthis from Yemen are fighting in Ukraine alongside Russia via a company involved in arms trafficking, says the Swiss investigative NGO, Inpact (“Investigations with impact”), confirming the Financial Times investigation published this weekend. According to Lou Osborn, a member of the NGO, the contracts between these mercenaries, often penniless, and the Russian army go through a company, based in the Sultanate of Oman, which is linked to the Yemeni parliamentarian, Abdul-Wali Abdo Hassan Al- Jabri, sided with the Houthis. “He is involved in the arms trade between Russia and the Houthis“, she assured this Wednesday, November 27.
Washington has for months accused Moscow of wanting to supply weapons to the Yemeni Houthis, rebels allied with Iran who have been disrupting international trade for a year by attacking ships in the Red Sea. Moscow and Tehran, united in particular by their enmity towards Washington, have de facto become considerably closer. Contacted by AFP on Tuesday, the Houthis did not respond. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Ukrainian diplomat said that even if the Russians have not “no limit“, they do not have “no proof».
In December 2023, the Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal, confirmed the departure of some of his nationals – more than 1,000 we learned in March – into the ranks of the Russian army. A few months later, in February 2024, the Indian daily The Hindu in turn informed that around a hundred Indian soldiers had been enlisted by Russia in its recruitment center in Moscow over the past year. Finally, on November 12, the United States confirmed the rumor, which had been floating around for several weeks, according to which more than 10,000 North Korean recruits were indeed “engaged in combat operations” alongside Moscow in Russia's Kursk region.
Two parallel conflicts that resonate
On the Red Sea, Yemen's rebels have for months targeted commercial ships they deem linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom. They say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in the context of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
In January, an official Houthi delegation visited Moscow to discuss the “need to step up efforts to put pressure» on the United States and Israel in order to end the war in the Gaza Strip, according to a rebel spokesperson. The latter, Mohammed Abdelsalam, had clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that his delegation had been received by the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov.
In September, the United States accused Moscow of discussing arms transfers with those who now control a vast part of Yemeni territory, at the end of a civil war which has lasted for more than 10 years. According to Lou Osborn, “some fighters are recruited in Amman, Jordan while working in restaurants» and are devoid of real military experience.
«They are promised $10,000 initially then $2,500 per month. But when they arrive, they are welcomed by the Russian army and are paid 260 dollars a month. she says, referring to a few hundred people. The fighters transit through the Sultanate of Oman before being sent to Russia. As of Tuesday, November 26, Inpact did not have additional information on their possible training before being sent to the front and on the management of linguistic translation.
