A Yemeni minister has warned the country’s Houthi rebels are plotting to seize land along the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which would allow them to further threaten the vital shipping artery.
Three Houthi military sources and a spokesman for the Yemeni government forces battling them near the waterway also told AFP the rebels are planning to advance south from their current territory.
Such an assault, if successful, could cement Houthi control over one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which the Iran-backed rebels have disrupted with attacks on passing vessels since the Gaza war broke out in 2023.
It would also extend the hold of Tehran and its allies to a second vital waterway in the Middle East, after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in its war with the United States.
Greater Houthi control of Bab al-Mandab would threaten to choke off oil exports from Saudi Arabia, against which the rebels have announced a maritime blockade.
“The Houthi militia... is working to create the conditions for seizing control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait by expanding its presence along the western coast and attempting to control strategic Yemeni islands in the Red Sea,” Yemen’s information minister Moammar al-Eryani told AFP late Tuesday.
He said there had been a military build-up by the Houthis and that their plans were illustrated by “repeated targeting of ports, docks, civilian infrastructure, ships, and government naval capabilities.”
The Houthis currently do not control coastal areas directly on the strait, but they hold the key port city of Hodeida to the north and have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea.
With Iran’s closure of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab has gained increased importance as a transit route for Saudi oil. The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea -- and, via the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean -- to the Indian Ocean.
In recent weeks, the rebels have launched their deadliest attacks in years on Yemeni government forces.
They have also begun targeting Yemen’s port city of Mokha, which lies close to Bab al-Mandab, as well as military sites near the strait and government-controlled islands in the Red Sea.
Major-General Sadeq Duwaid, a spokesman for the government-affiliated National Resistance Forces that control areas bordering the strait, told AFP that the rebels “are striving to secure a foothold in Bab al-Mandab.”
“Through their continued attacks on Mokha and its port, the Houthi militia seeks to establish a presence along the shores of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and transform the area into a situation resembling that of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Three Houthi military sources also told AFP that their group was preparing to launch an operation to seize areas south of Hodeida.
They said around 2,000 fighters had been deployed to front lines along Yemen’s western coast in the provinces of Taiz and Hodeida, along with rocket launchers.
Mohammed al-Basha, of the US-based risk advisory the Basha Report, warned in a post last week that the Houthis “are making a push to capture” the vital strait.
“Houthi attacks on Mokha port point to efforts to choke off weapon supplies from government forces on the western coast and to prepare for a push towards Bab al-Mandeb,” he told AFP.
“Taking the strip of land around Bab al-Mandeb strait would be easier than fighting well-entrenched troops in the Marib desert and a strategic win. The battle for Bab al-Mandab is coming sooner or later.”
In July, the group said they were not halting traffic through the strategic strait and that their blockade was limited to Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this month, the group denied it sought to charge ships for passage through Bab al-Mandab after Eryani accused them of trying to imitate Iran’s efforts to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz.
In July, Yemen became the latest country to be dragged into the Middle East war when the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.
Last month, the Houthis welcomed an Iranian plane to Yemen’s capital Sanaa, setting off a spate of attacks. They later announced a maritime blockade of the Yemeni government’s backer Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships.
