Red Sea nations watch as Houthis seize Bab al-Mandeb strait

The Houthis have completed their takeover of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline, capturing the port city of Mocha and overrunning the strategic island of Mayyun (Perim) over the weekend.

Houthi forces are now positioned just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the African coast and essentially control the strategically significant Bab al-Mandeb strait, a chokepoint for Red Sea maritime traffic.

While there are no indication that the Houthis would intervene outside Yemen’s borders, the war is already being felt on the African continent.

More than 2,000 people have fled Yemen to Djibouti over the past 24 hours, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday.

Yemenis arriving in Obock, a Djibouti city only about 20km (12 miles) from Yemen’s coast, are being provided with food and water, but the IOM warned that “more support is needed”.

Bab al-Mandeb handles roughly 12 percent of global trade, including 11 percent of maritime oil and 8 percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

It comes as the Houthis’ ally, Iran, maintains a level of control over the Strait of Hormuz, where around a fifth of the world’s energy supplies passed through before the United States and Israel’s war on Iran began on February 28.

Houthi politburo member Hazem al-Assad insists that “freedom of navigation and international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb are safe and orderly” and Iran insists that their Yemen allies are an independent group.  But global shipping lines have reacted with extreme caution to recent developments in Yemen.