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# Houthis Seize Mocha and Advance Towards Strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait
- URL: https://www.theglobalvoice.com/houthis-seize-mocha-and-advance-towards-strategic-bab-el-mandeb-strait/
- Published: 2026-09-10T12:38:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T12:39:03.000Z
- Description: The Houthis have seized Mocha and are advancing towards Bab el-Mandeb, bringing them closer to one of the world’s most important shipping routes. With the Strait of Hormuz already disrupted, the battle in Yemen now carries consequences far beyond its borders.
- Author: TGV Desk
- Tags: Analysis, asia, middle-east, conflict, The Day So Far

Yemen's Houthis have seized the strategic port city of Mocha and are advancing towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, bringing the Iran-aligned movement closer to one of the world's most important maritime chokepoints and threatening to turn Yemen's renewed civil war into another crisis for global shipping.

Yemeni government military sources told that the Houthis had taken control of Mocha after days of intense fighting with Saudi-backed government forces. The group has simultaneously attacked the strategic Hanish Islands in the Red Sea, forcing government-aligned forces farther south towards Dhubab. From there, the geography becomes particularly dangerous: Dhubab sits directly beside Bab el-Mandeb, while the nearby island of Perim lies inside the strait itself. Control over these positions would give the Houthis a significantly stronger ability to threaten vessels entering and leaving the Red Sea.

Bab el-Mandeb, meaning the “Gate of Tears”, is the narrow passage separating Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea and connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Ships travelling between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal must pass through it. Oil tankers, container ships and commodity vessels use the route, making control of the surrounding coastline strategically important far beyond Yemen. The Houthis have already demonstrated that they can disrupt international shipping, launching repeated missile and drone attacks against vessels in the Red Sea since 2023.

The timing of the advance makes the threat considerably more serious. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has already been heavily disrupted by the wider conflict involving Iran and the United States, forcing Saudi Arabia to rely more heavily on its east-west pipeline and the Red Sea port of Yanbu to export crude. Millions of barrels can be moved across Saudi territory to Yanbu, bypassing Hormuz, but tankers leaving the Red Sea for Asian markets must eventually pass through Bab el-Mandeb. If the Houthis can threaten that route as well, Saudi Arabia could find pressure building around both of its principal maritime gateways. Brent crude was trading above $100 a barrel on Thursday as markets absorbed the growing risk to energy supplies.

The advance also represents a dramatic reversal in Yemen's war. Mocha had previously been driven out of Houthi hands by forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition and became an important base for the National Resistance Forces commanded by Tarek Saleh, nephew of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has now instructed his forces on the western coast to establish an alternative command centre in a safer location, another indication of the pressure being applied by the Houthi offensive.

Yemen had experienced several years of relative calm after a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely froze the major front lines. That period is now unravelling. Fighting has spread through Taiz, Hodeidah and other provinces, while Saudi Arabia has again been drawn directly into the conflict. Houthi attacks on southern Saudi Arabia have wounded 73 people in recent days, according to Riyadh, and Saudi forces have responded with strikes inside Yemen. Pakistan has meanwhile carried a Saudi warning to Tehran asking Iran to restrain the Houthis, although Iran insists it does not control the movement.

Mocha matters, but the bigger prize is farther south. If the Houthis capture Dhubab and strengthen their control around Perim and the nearby coast, they would not own the Bab el-Mandeb itself. However, they could gain the ability to put much greater military pressure on ships passing through the strait.

The battle for Yemen's western coast is therefore becoming a battle over a global trade route. With Hormuz already under severe pressure, the prospect of another Iran-aligned force gaining greater leverage over Bab el-Mandeb leaves the world confronting an uncomfortable possibility: disruption at two of the Middle East's most important maritime chokepoints at the same time.