Yemen's Houthis close in on Bab el-Mandeb Strait in new threat to shipping
- Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified in recent days
Yemen's Houthis have advanced to the Hanish islands and captured Mocha, threatening the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital global shipping route, amid intensified fighting and concerns over maritime trade disruption.
- Houthi control of Red Sea coastal areas and islands.
- Threat to the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait shipping.
- Global energy and commodity supply disruptions.
ADEN/DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthis have reached the Red Sea islands of Hanish after capturing the coastal city of Mocha, two Yemeni government sources said, in a dramatic strategic shift that could threaten the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important shipping routes.
Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified in recent days, with Houthis shifting focus to control over Yemen’s long coastline instead of just the north, putting them in a stronger position to disrupt maritime trade.
Despite concerns over possible new problems for global shipping from the Middle East turmoil, a Houthi spokesperson said freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and the Strait remain safe and operations are limited to specific targets.
But they will only stop when the “aggression” against Yemen ends, added Mohammed Abdulsalam, in a post on X.
The Houthi-run Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, set up to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators, said that navigation in the Red Sea was safe for all shipping companies, except Saudi vessels, which remain subject to a previously announced ban.
The group had launched attacks on Hanish, pushing government forces and their allies south to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait across from the island of Perim, the Yemeni sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.
The escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia’s Yemeni allies in the internationally recognised government and the Houthis has created a second theatre of war in the Iran conflict that threatens global energy and commodity supplies.
Houthis earlier seized control of the historic port city of Mocha, four government military sources said.
Brent crude prices hovered above $100 a barrel on Thursday as supply routes through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea remained heavily disrupted.
To avoid the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has been loading millions of barrels of oil a day from its Yanbu port, which lies further north on the Red Sea coast.
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