By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-12-06

The Houthis have been using a "humanitarian coordination center" they established to extort millions of dollars from shipping companies in exchange for safe passage through the Red Sea, analysts and officials said.

The so-called Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC), created in February, operates as a front for the Iran-backed group to extort money from commercial vessels traversing Bab al-Mandeb, according to multiple sources.

A United Nations panel of experts' report released in October estimates the Houthis generate $180 million a month through maritime piracy and extortion of international shipping agencies.

"The panel's sources conveyed that the Houthis allegedly collected illegal fees from a few shipping agencies to allow their ships to sail through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden without being attacked," the report said.

"Sources further informed the panel that these shipping agencies coordinate with a company affiliated with a top-ranking Houthi leader and that the fees are deposited in various accounts in multiple jurisdictions," it said.

The HOCC's publicly stated mandate is to mitigate the civilian impacts of military operations while adhering to Islamic teachings and international humanitarian law.

But the center's true purpose is more nefarious, according to Abdulqader al-Kharraz, director of research projects at the Democratic Arab Center in Berlin and former chief of Yemen's Environmental Protection Authority.

"The Houthis established the HOCC in order to communicate with shipping companies and ships to transmit threats and practice extortion, and it has nothing to do with humanitarian operations," he told Pishtaz.

'Kingpin of Sanaa'

The HOCC is under the supervision of Ahmed Hamed, office director for Houthi Supreme Political Council chairman Mahdi al-Mashat, al-Kharraz said.

Under Hamed's leadership, it "negotiates deals and collects payments to ensure the safe passage of ships through the international shipping lane," said al-Kharraz.

Hamed's power stems from his long-standing relationship with Houthi leader Abdul Malek al-Houthi, which has earned him the nickname "the Kingpin of Sanaa," according to the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

Financial gain is a key motive in the Houthis' campaign of Red Sea attacks and intimidation, said Abaad Center for Strategic Studies director Abdul Salam Mohammed.

The group seeks "to turn international shipping lanes into sources of [extortion] income," he said, since they regard them as "a printing press generating millions of dollars monthly."

This racket has become "a major source of income for the Houthis," he said.

The group also seeks to gain control of Bab al-Mandeb strait, which is a central security objective of the Iranian regime, he added, and "to harm the interests of the countries of the region, especially Saudi Arabia and Egypt."