Houthis Take Control of Bab el-Mandeb Strait as Yemeni Government Forces Pull Back

Yemeni forces fighting for the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government announced on Sunday that they are pulling out of an area overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a move that leaves the Iran-aligned Houthis in control of the vital maritime passage.

The government's retreat from the Bab el-Mandeb area gives the Houthis greater leverage over the chokepoint, creating a potent pressure point on global shipping at a time when Iran continues to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula. Together, the two pressure points would further isolate Gulf oil producers from their main shipping routes.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait ranks among the world's most important and busiest routes for seaborne shipments of commodities and goods, particularly traffic moving from Asia to Europe through Egypt's Suez Canal.

The southern Yemeni forces said they were redeploying toward Aden, where the government is based, as the Houthis increase pressure on southern areas still under government control. The Houthis already hold much of the north, including the capital Sanaa and Yemen's most populous regions.

"The Southern Armed Forces announce the implementation of a redeployment operation for its forces from Dhubab Airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate," the southern forces said in a statement. "This step is taken based on the priority of securing the capital, Aden, and the neighboring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats."

Government forces had launched a military campaign in October to recapture the strategic coastal areas from the powerful militia, which pushed south in September in an attempt to seize control of Yemen's entire Red Sea coast. That lightning offensive brought the Houthis within reach of Bab el-Mandeb.

The escalation, which broke a 2022 UN-brokered truce, has become another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran. The Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and the world's biggest crude exporter.

Houthi attacks on the kingdom, which had enjoyed relative calm during the early months of the nine-month-old Iran war, have disrupted flights and oil supplies. The strikes have hit Saudi ports, airports and facilities of state oil company Saudi Aramco, including Yanbu, the kingdom's Red Sea oil export hub. In response, Saudi Arabia has struck Houthi targets in Yemen, a country mired in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis pushed the government south. Impoverished Yemen has been grappling with one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Fighting is intensifying around the western region of Taiz, where humanitarian conditions are worsening. The city, which hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, remains under siege. Aid supplies cannot enter, and civilians cannot leave.