Somalia and Yemen

How do Somalia and Yemen relate today?

Both governments keep embassies and meet regularly. Yemen's ambassador in Mogadishu, Fadl al-Hanaq, met Somalia's foreign minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali on 7 May 2025 and passed on congratulations from Yemen's foreign minister, Shaya Zindani (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 7 May 2025). Somalia's ambassador to Yemen, Abdul Hakim Mohammed, met Yemen's deputy foreign minister Mansour Bajash in Aden on 21 August 2025 (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 21 August 2025).

Somalia supports Yemen's internationally recognised government. In January 2023 Somalia's foreign minister condemned Houthi attacks on oil facilities and threats to shipping (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 18 January 2023).

People still cross the Gulf of Aden both ways. Yemen hosted about 40,000 refugees from Somalia at the end of 2025, and Somalia hosted about 13,500 from Yemen (see below).

When did contact begin?

The two coasts have traded since ancient times; see The ancient frankincense and myrrh trade and Rasulid Yemen and the Somali ports, 1229–1454.

A 2019 Rift Valley Institute study describes north-east Somalia, Somaliland and southern Yemen as having been "in many respects, extensions of each other", sharing religion and culture (Rift Valley Institute, Majid and Abdirahman, 2019). It names two main sea corridors: Berbera–Aden and Bosaso–Mukalla. It also names the Hadrami of Yemen and the Harti of north-eastern Somalia as the two main migrant groups between them.

Somalis were a significant presence in Aden by the late nineteenth century and used it as a market for livestock (RVI, 2019). One person interviewed for the study said: "The Hadramis were coming to Somalia for centuries. They are mainly merchants."

Who are the ambassadors and envoys?

Yemen to Somalia

• Yemen reopened its embassy in Mogadishu in January 2007, before any other country after the Islamic Courts were driven out (Al Jazeera, 28 May 2007).
• Ahmed Omar, Yemeni ambassador, attended the opening of Djibouti's embassy in Mogadishu on 14 December 2010 (Hiiraan Online, 14 December 2010).
• Fadl Ali Ahmed al-Hanaq, ambassador in 2024 and 2025 (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 22 May 2024; 7 May 2025).

Somalia to Yemen

• Abdul Hakim Mohammed, ambassador, with an embassy in Aden, Yemen's interim capital, in 2025 (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 21 August 2025).

Who built the tie?

• Ali Abdullah Saleh, then President of Yemen, attended the investiture of Abdiqasim Salad Hassan on 27 August 2000. He then hosted Hussein Mohamed Aidid, Osman Hassan Ali "Atto" and other faction leaders in Sanaa and urged them to join the Arta process (Al Bawaba/AFP, 31 August 2000).
• Saleh also hosted the talks that produced the Aden Declaration of 5 January 2006 (PA-X, Aden Declaration).
• Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, President of Somalia, and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, Speaker of Parliament, signed the Aden Declaration (PA-X; Al Jazeera, 5 January 2006).
• Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, Yemen's foreign minister, visited Mogadishu in January 2023 and met his counterpart Abshir Omar. They discussed reviving the joint committee for economic, scientific and technical cooperation set up in 2013 (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 18 January 2023).
• Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, as Somalia's foreign minister, met Ambassador al-Hanaq on 22 May 2024 and backed Yemen's stability (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 22 May 2024).

What agreements have they signed?

• Joint committee for economic, scientific and technical cooperation, 2013 (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 2023).
• Aden Declaration, 5 January 2006: a Somali agreement brokered by Yemen to end the dispute between the president and the speaker and reconvene parliament (PA-X). A Yemeni official said the leaders agreed in principle that the government would move first to Baidoa and then to Mogadishu (Al Jazeera, 5 January 2006).

Which leaders have visited?

• 27 August 2000: President Saleh at Abdiqasim's investiture in Arta, Djibouti (Al Bawaba/AFP).
• 2–5 January 2006: President Abdullahi Yusuf and Speaker Sharif Hassan in Aden (PA-X).
• January 2023: Foreign Minister bin Mubarak in Mogadishu (Yemen MOFA/Saba).

How much do they trade?

Yemen reported this trade with Somalia (UN Comtrade, Yemen reporter, 2024; 2023; 2019):

• 2019: imports from Somalia US$16.6 million
• 2023: exports US$12.4 million; imports US$5.1 million
• 2024: exports US$13.5 million; imports US$10.6 million

In 2024, US$10.4 million of Yemen's imports from Somalia were live animals. Its main exports were cereal preparations, dairy products and plastics (UN Comtrade, by chapter, 2024).

After Somalia's state collapsed, Yemen became a re-export hub for Somali livestock when Saudi Arabia banned direct imports from Berbera and Bosaso. Somali fish later followed the same route (RVI, 2019). Somali fishers and traders work between Bosaso and Mukalla, about 140 miles apart, and some hold dual nationality (same source). See Livestock exports.

How much aid and money has gone in?

Neither country is a donor to the other. Their main exchange of support has been hosting each other's refugees.

What about security?

The UN Security Council has expressed concern about "illegal flows of weapons and ammunition supplies from Yemen to Somalia" (UN, S/RES/2444 (2018)). In October 2025 the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen reported that Houthi engineers had travelled to Jilib to train al-Shabaab in explosives and drones, and that a facilitator arranged travel for nearly 400 Somalis to Houthi areas for training (Arab News, 30 September 2026). Matt Bryden, a former head of the UN Somalia panel, has warned that Yemeni-origin weapons alone do not prove Houthi–al-Shabaab cooperation (same source). See Piracy off Somalia and Foreign forces in Somalia.

How does Yemen deal with Somaliland and the member states?

• Most boats from Yemen land at Bosaso in Puntland and Berbera in Somaliland. In 2015, 30,202 people crossed from Yemen to Somalia, 95% of them ethnic Somalis returning (UNHCR, Somalia snapshot, 31 March 2016).
• In Somaliland and Puntland, clan elders verify the nationality of people arriving (same source).
• Bosaso and Mukalla are linked by fishing and trade networks that work largely without documents (RVI, 2019).

Have there been disputes?

No dispute between the two governments was found. Yemen's government and Somalia share a position against the Houthis. Yemen's foreign minister told Somalia in 2023 that the Houthis rejected calls for peace, and Somalia condemned their attacks on shipping (Yemen MOFA/Saba, 18 January 2023).

How many Somalis live in Yemen?

At the end of 2025 UNHCR counted 40,335 refugees and 202 asylum seekers from Somalia in Yemen, down from 255,894 refugees in 2017 (UNHCR Refugee Data Finder API). In the other direction, Somalia hosted 13,496 refugees from Yemen, up from 5 in 2014 (UNHCR API). See Yemen (Somali refugees).

Where does Yemen stand in the UN and other bodies on Somalia?

• Both are members of the Arab League and the OIC. Their foreign ministers also meet on the sidelines of Arab League councils (Somalia MFA).
• Yemen hosted Somali reconciliation talks in 2000 and 2006 (above).
• Yemen does not send troops to the AU mission.

Related pages

• Yemen (Somali refugees)
• Rasulid Yemen and the Somali ports, 1229–1454
• Saad ad-Din's death at Zeila and his sons in Yemen
• The ancient frankincense and myrrh trade
• Livestock exports
• Fishing and the sea
• Piracy off Somalia
• Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed
• Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden