Houthis reach Bab el-Mandeb, raising fresh threat to Saudi oil exports

Cairo,UPDATED: Sep 18, 2026 01:02 IST

A week after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept down the Red Sea coast, the advance has widened the group's reach to the Bab el-Mandeb, a key maritime chokepoint, and raised fresh concerns over Saudi Arabia's oil exports and regional security.

The Houthi offensive, their biggest territorial gain in years, has reignited Yemen's 12-year civil war, pushed up global fuel prices and forced around 125,000 people to flee their homes. It has also opened another pressure point for Iran at a time when the United States has begun easing Tehran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis have also been firing at Saudi oil facilities and tankers, while an attack on Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline, blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, has added to pressure on the kingdom and unsettled global markets. Over the years, Yemen's civil war has killed more than 150,000 people and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The rebels now appear to be looking towards Yemen's oil-rich east. In their way are Yemen's Saudi-backed government and a cluster of forces that had themselves fought as recently as January. The United States, Saudi Arabia's most important ally, appears unwilling to get involved for now.

The Houthis captured the Red Sea port city of Mokha before seizing several islands near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, through which around 12 per cent of world trade passes in peacetime. They are also just 32 kilometres from Djibouti, which hosts US and other military bases. The Houthis first surged out of their northern stronghold in 2014, capturing Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi intervention the following year. Fighting continued until a 2022 ceasefire.

In recent days, heavy fighting has been reported in and around Marib, a central city in an oil-rich province of the same name. Earlier Houthi offensives failed to capture the city, which is also a military hub for Saudi-backed forces. The group is also threatening Taiz in western Yemen, another long-standing front line in the conflict.

The Houthis say their aim is to force Saudi Arabia to end its long-running blockade on areas under their control. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis' political bureau, told The Associated Press: "It is Saudi Arabia that closed the Bab el-Mandeb strait to shipping traffic to and from Yemen and imposed an unjust blockade on the country." Saudi Arabia and its allies have long struggled to contain or deter the Houthis, and any effort to stop the attacks through diplomacy may ultimately require US concessions to Iran, the only country seen as having leverage over the group.

The US, which bombed the Houthis under both the Biden and Trump administrations, has shown no interest in joining the conflict this time, and the Houthis appear keen to avoid drawing Washington in. They say they are targeting only Saudi shipping. Shipping firm Windward reported that daily traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb dropped from 35 transits before the Houthi advance to 25 after it, but had recovered to 45 transits on Sunday.

Analysts say the danger to shipping could still widen. During the Houthis' self-declared blockade of Israel during the height of the Gaza war, they struck vessels in the Red Sea with no known link to that conflict. "At the moment, their focus is on Saudi-linked shipping," said Valentin d'Hauthuille, a Middle East analyst at ACLED, a conflict monitor. But they might "extend the criteria according to which vessels are assessed to be Saudi-linked" to increase pressure on both Saudi Arabia and the global economy, he said.

Regional mediators have moved quickly, though prospects for an agreement remain tied to the wider confrontation involving Iran. Tehran wants the US to end a blockade and sanctions that have badly damaged its economy, while Washington wants the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and an agreement to scale back Iran's nuclear programme. Neither side has shown signs of shifting since a preliminary agreement collapsed over the summer.

Last weekend, Oman hosted a meeting between US and Houthi representatives, according to a Houthi official and another person familiar with the talks. The US has said it has been in "constant contact" with the Saudis. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently visited Egypt, which has been acting as a regional mediator. A government official in Turkiye said this week that Ankara was speaking with Iran and the United Arab Emirates to try to reduce tensions. The Houthi attacks are also the first test of a new defence pact involving Saudi Arabia, NATO member Turkiye and Pakistan, but officials in Turkiye and Pakistan say they have not received any Saudi request for support.

The humanitarian toll is rising. The UN humanitarian office says the latest fighting has killed eight civilians and injured 32 others, while around 125,000 people have fled their homes. The Health Ministry in the Saudi-backed government says the Houthis have killed about 150 civilians since September 3. Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that debris from an intercepted Houthi drone killed one person and injured two others inside the kingdom.

Yemen was already the poorest Arab country before the war and has faced widespread hunger in recent years because of the conflict and the Saudi-led blockade. The Houthis' detention of UN and aid workers has disrupted international relief efforts in areas under their control. Experts say the group has struggled to pay civil servants, fuelling some unrest, and has diverted much of its tax revenue to its military wing. OCHA says only 20 per cent of its humanitarian appeal for Yemen has been funded and that "millions risk losing access to food, healthcare, nutrition, water and protection services."

"The needs are extremely high right now," said Sara Ahmed, a supervisor with Doctors Without Borders in Mokha, adding that doctors were trying to keep essential services running despite hearing airstrikes. Mahida Ahmed, who fled the fighting in Mokha and is now in a displacement camp in Aden, said she escaped with her children and no belongings, while her husband remains stranded in the city. "This war has been completely devastating for us," she said.

With the Houthis expanding their battlefield gains, pressure mounting on Saudi Arabia's energy routes and diplomacy still uncertain, the conflict is once again deepening Yemen's humanitarian crisis while raising wider concerns over trade, oil supplies and regional stability.

With PTI Inputs

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