A Century Foundation database found that more than 80% of goods seized en route to the Houthis in 2024 and 2025 were weapons-production materials, pointing to a turn toward local assembly.
The Foundation’s researchers compiled more than 140 seizure records from March 2024 through November 2025, drawing on reports from naval forces, customs and border services, and Yemeni security units. In an October 2026 assessment, Conflict Armament Research (CAR) reported finding seven components associated with a Khaibarshekan-series missile among shipments seized in Aden. Shipping documents listed a Chinese supplier, and CAR assessed the components as evidence of an effort to produce advanced medium-range ballistic missiles.
The United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen described an earlier change in the supply pattern. Its 2019 report said weapons used by Houthi forces in 2015 and 2016 were often already complete or partly built when supplied from abroad. By 2018, the panel said, imports more often included valuable parts for weapons assembled locally.
In its 2024 report, the panel cited testimony indicating the Houthis could not independently develop and produce complex weapons without foreign support. It also noted similarities between Houthi weapons and systems made by Iran or groups aligned with it. In the Century Foundation’s records from 2021 to 2025, 35% of documented items originated in China and 21% in Iran. Those percentages reflect recorded seizures; they do not establish the origins of all supplies entering Houthi territory or the composition of the group’s full arsenal.
A shipment seized by Yemeni customs in Aden on July 23, 2025, was declared as carrying construction materials shipped from Shanghai to Hudaydah, the panel reported. Two containers also held a thermal camera, sensor connectors and carbon-fiber fabric, which the panel said could be used in drones. In June 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Ali Abd-al-Wahhab Muhammad al-Wazir and companies linked to him, alleging he procured materials for Houthi weapons production through a China-based trading company. Treasury has said Houthi attacks on merchant vessels killed civilians and damaged commercial ships.
The United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen reviews clearances and inspects commercial vessels bound for the country’s Red Sea ports. The Century Foundation says the mechanism has no independent enforcement authority. A 2025 panel report cited weak inspections and poor coordination, and said the arms embargo established by Security Council Resolution 2216 had not significantly constrained Houthi capabilities.
Security Council Resolution 2801 sets Nov. 14, 2026, as the latest date for the council to review and act on a possible extension of the Yemen panel’s mandate.
