Newly recruited Houthi fighters chant slogans as they ride a military vehicle in Sanaa on 3 January 2017Image copyrightAFP
MPs in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have agreed to allow the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to set up a military base in the port of Berbera.
Observers say the deal has proved controversial among Somaliland’s neighbours in the Horn of Africa.
The UAE already has a military facility at Eritrea’s Assab port for use in a campaign against Yemeni rebels.
It is part of a coalition that has fought Houthi rebels and imposed a naval blockade on Yemen since 2015.
More than 10,000 people have been killed and 40,000 wounded since then, according to the UN.
Somaliland’s President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo told MPs the military base would help create jobs, the Associated Press agency reports.
During the parliamentary vote, 144 legislators supported the military base, two voted against, two abstained – and nine others who opposed the plan and shouted in the chamber were escorted out by soldiers.
Last year, Somaliland, which declared itself independent from the rest of Somalia in 1991, signed a $442m (£353m) deal for a Dubai-based firm to upgrade the port of Berbera, which mainly exports livestock to the Middle East.