Forces fighting for Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government announced on Sunday that they were withdrawing from an area overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint vital to global shipping, leaving the Iran-aligned Houthis in control.
The Southern Armed Forces said in a statement that they were redeploying from Dhubab Airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate, towards Aden, the seat of the government. They said the step was based on “the priority of securing the capital, Aden,” and the neighbouring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats.
The announcement comes as the Houthis step up pressure on the southern areas that remain under official control. The Iran-aligned group holds much of the north, including the capital, Sanaa, and Yemen’s most populous areas. In effect, the redeployment pulls government fighters back towards Aden while leaving the ground near the strait in Houthi hands.
The withdrawal gives the Houthis greater leverage over the maritime passage, creating a potent pressure point on global shipping. Bab el-Mandeb is among the world’s most important and busiest routes for seaborne commodities and goods, particularly cargo moving from Asia to Europe through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Iran, meanwhile, continues to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. The combined squeeze on the two waterways would further cut Gulf oil producers off from their main shipping routes.
The Houthis pushed south in September in an attempt to seize Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast. The lightning offensive brought them within reach of Bab el-Mandeb. Government forces responded in October with a military campaign to recapture the strategic coastal areas from the powerful militia.
The escalation in fighting broke a 2022 UN-brokered truce and became another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran, which is now nine months old. Yemen’s fighting is thus tied to a broader confrontation.
The Houthis’ push in September, the government’s counter-campaign in October and Sunday’s pullback from the Bab el-Mandeb area mark successive stages in the struggle for control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. For now, the Houthis hold much of the north, including Sanaa, and an area overlooking the strait, while southern forces concentrate on securing Aden and neighbouring governorates.
As part of that wider conflict, the Houthis continue to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and the world’s biggest crude exporter. The kingdom, which supports Yemen’s government, had enjoyed relative calm during the early months of the war, but the attacks have since disrupted flights and oil supplies.
Targets have included Saudi ports, airports and facilities of the state oil company Saudi Aramco, among them Yanbu, the kingdom’s Red Sea oil export hub. Saudi Arabia has responded by striking Houthi targets in Yemen.
Yemen has been mired in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis forced the government south. The impoverished country has been grappling with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. That backdrop of conflict and hardship predates the latest escalation along the Red Sea coast.
Fighting is intensifying around the western region of Taiz, and humanitarian conditions there are worsening. The city, which hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, remains besieged. Aid supplies cannot get in, and civilians cannot get out, leaving residents trapped.
