The Houthi militia has also captured the last two islands in the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to the Yemeni government. A representative of the internationally recognized government said that after government troops withdrew, the militia had completely taken over the area, including islands and the coast.
The Houthis had previously taken the coastal town of Mocha as part of a large-scale offensive against the government, thereby bringing the entire Yemeni Red Sea coast under their control. The Yemeni army responded with air strikes on Houthi fighters in Mocha, and Saudi Arabia also announced countermeasures. According to the United Nations, tens of thousands of civilians have fled the combat zone in recent days.
The Houthis, meanwhile, reaffirmed the naval blockade they declared against Saudi Arabian ships in July. Shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait is "safe for all companies, with the exception of Saudi Arabian ships, which are already banned," said a spokesman for the Iran-allied militia.
From their new positions, the Houthis can attack commercial and other ships in the Red Sea even more specifically than before. In recent years, the militia has attacked ships several times, some of them hijacked or sunk. In part, they justified this with their support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Bab al-Mandab is one of the most important shipping routes in the world and connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. A shipping route runs through the strait, which in some places is only around 20 kilometers wide, from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean - the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Bab al-Mandab is also central to the export of oil from Saudi Arabia. The importance of the strait increased further as Iran largely blocked the Strait of Hormuz. After the start of the Iran War, Saudi Arabia shifted parts of its oil exports from the east coast on the Persian Gulf to the west coast on the Red Sea.
The rapid conquest of strategically important areas by the Houthi militia is causing concerned international political and economic reactions. Israeli military expert Danny Citrinowicz spoke of a setback for the West. In the Middle East there has "rarely been a strategic failure of this magnitude," he wrote on X. This is not just a Saudi problem, but an international problem.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin called the developments in Yemen “worrying.” It condemns the fact that the Houthis and Iran are trying to “take international shipping hostage.” He also criticized attacks on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and the offensive against the Yemeni government.
Iran's Vice President Mohammed Reza Aref congratulated the militia for their advance. "We rejoice in the victories of the heroic people of Yemen," he wrote on
The background to the developments is a conflict that has been going on for years between the Houthi militia and the Yemeni government. While the Houthis are supported by Iran, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia is fighting on the side of the internationally recognized government. An informal ceasefire has existed in the war between the Shiite Houthis and the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 2022.
At the end of 2014, the Houthis overthrew Saudi Arabia-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. In 2015, the kingdom joined the conflict at the head of an alliance of Sunni countries. Tens of thousands of people were killed during the war and Yemen's economy collapsed. Large parts of the population are suffering from hunger and around 22 million people are dependent on humanitarian aid.
