Interior Minister Haidan discusses coast guard support with EU and Dutch ambassadors in Aden
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan asked the European Union for more help training security personnel and equipping Yemen’s coast guard on Tuesday.
He made the request in a meeting with EU Ambassador Patrick Simonnet and Netherlands Ambassador Jeannette Seppen, the state news agency Saba reported.
The account rests on Saba, which carried the Interior Ministry’s readout. No independent account of the meeting has been published, and the EU delegation has not released a summary of its own.
Haidan said expanded support should cover training and development of security personnel, according to the agency.
He asked for backing for the coast guard to strengthen security along the coastline, Saba reported.
He linked that to Houthi threats to shipping and maritime routes.
The Yemeni coast guard operates under the Interior Ministry. Its patrol capacity has been limited through the war.
The minister praised EU support for the government and for his ministry.
He reviewed what he described as the ministry’s work to hold security in government-held provinces during the Houthi escalation.
Haidan said the escalation was backed and directed by Iran. He said the group was working with what he called terrorist organisations, naming the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab.
Those are the minister’s characterisations. The Houthis reject them, and say they act independently of Tehran.
No independent confirmation of the alleged cooperation with those groups has been published.
Haidan also raised displacement caused by the fighting in Taiz and Hudaydah, calling it a security and humanitarian problem.
He asked the European Union and other governments to help address the consequences of displacement and to build up the capacity of security agencies, Saba said.
Simonnet reaffirmed EU support for the Yemeni government, according to the readout.
He condemned Houthi escalation and attacks on civilians and facilities.
He said international efforts to protect freedom of navigation and the security of shipping routes mattered, Saba reported.
The agency did not quote either man directly. It did not report remarks by Seppen.
Simonnet took up the EU post in Yemen on 1 September 2025.
He was EU special envoy for the Mediterranean from 2023 to 2025, and EU ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 2020 to 2023.
He headed the East Africa and Horn of Africa division at the European External Action Service from 2017 to 2020, and was EU ambassador to Iraq from 2015 to 2017.
The two ambassadors visited Marib together earlier this year.
Marib holds a large displaced population and sits on the government side of the front line in Yemen’s north-east.
The meeting came after three weeks of Houthi advances on Yemen’s western coast.
The group opened an offensive against the Presidential Leadership Council on 3 September. The first clashes were in Taiz governorate.
The Houthis broke into al-Waziyah district on 9 September and took Jabal al-Nar, a mountain east of Mokha, along with the Khalid ibn al-Walid camp.
That camp is the second-largest military base in Yemen.
They captured the port city of Mokha on 10 September, Al Jazeera reported. Mokha sits on the Red Sea coast in Taiz governorate.
Perim Island, which lies in the Bab al-Mandab strait, followed on 11 September.
The Hanish Islands were taken afterwards, leaving the Red Sea coast in Houthi hands apart from Midi district.
The Houthis named the campaign Operation God is Stronger in Might and More Severe in Punishment.
Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Traffic between Europe and Asia passes through it toward the Suez Canal.
The Houthis later declared a blockade on shipping they associate with Saudi Arabia.
The European Union naval mission Aspides raised its alert level in the Red Sea this month.
The bloc launched Aspides in February 2024, after attacks on merchant shipping in the corridor. It escorts vessels through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The mission is separate from the EU delegation in Aden.
The UN Security Council condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said they attacked Riyadh and an Aramco facility at Yanbu.
Displacement has risen since the offensive began. UN agencies reported about 112,000 people displaced in two weeks of fighting.
A Yemeni government unit put the figure at close to 147,000 over 18 days.
The UN refugee agency allocated 2 million dollars for the latest wave.
More than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance, according to the UN humanitarian office’s March 2026 response plan.
That plan recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure.
It counted more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
It listed 5.2 million internally displaced people, a count that predates the September fighting.
The plan sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
The World Health Organization has said nearly 20 million people in Yemen need health assistance.
The government has operated from Aden since it lost Sanaa to the Houthis in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.
The Presidential Leadership Council took power in April 2022, when Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his authority to the eight-member body. Rashad al-Alimi chairs it.
Saba did not report any new EU commitment. It gave no date for further contacts.
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