Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels are escalating attacks along the country’s Red Sea coast, shutting down operations at a strategic seaport and pushing closer to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait , an important global shipping chokepoint.
From Aug. The port’s general director, Abdulmalik Al-Sharabi, told Yemeni state media that Houthi attacks hit commercial and service facilities, workshops, equipment and the port’s pier, killing 16 people and wounding 22. 10 to 16 there were 254 confirmed transits through Bab al-Mandeb, up slightly from the previous week when there were 238, according to data from the global energy analytics company Kpler.
More than 1,500 workers are off the job as a result of the shutdown, he said.
“This is the most significant escalation in quite a few years, maybe since 2020,” said Adam Baron, a Yemen expert and fellow with New America, a policy institute in Washington. Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, says it is fighting back. Deputy Defense Minister Samir al-Sabri said Sunday that a large number of Houthi fighters had been killed along the front lines in the regions of Marib and Taiz. “New fronts will open in areas within the Houthis’ own sphere of influence,” he said. Shipping industry analysts said traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb continues despite the attack. “It’s an extremely complex situation,” said Naveen Das, a senior analyst at Kpler. “Despite the risks, it still seems, I would say, a fairly resilient picture in the Red Sea.”
