OddsFrontHouthis seize Mayyun Island after an offensive reaches the Bab el-Mandeb strait
The capture places Houthi forces on the island dividing the strategic waterway’s two shipping channels and raises new risks for Red Sea traffic.
Offensive reaches the strait
Houthi forces reached Mayyun Island in the Bab el-Mandeb strait after government troops withdrew, according to a local official and witnesses cited by Euronews on September 11. The island, also called Perim, divides the narrowest section of the waterway into two shipping channels. Fighters were reported deploying on the island and along the adjacent Yemeni coast following an 18-hour advance.
The new capture followed the Houthis’ seizure of the port of Mocha, Zuqar Island and additional settlements along Yemen’s Red Sea shoreline. Government military sources also reported that more than 2,000 government-aligned troops were besieged on the Hanish islands and had requested supplies and air support. Their status had not been independently established when the report was published.
This is a material military development rather than another warning about a possible advance. The Houthis have moved onto the island at the centre of a globally important chokepoint after a ground and maritime offensive. However, control of nearby territory does not by itself prove that commercial passage has stopped, and reports of any shipping restrictions will require separate confirmation.
Why Bab el-Mandeb matters
Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea and Suez Canal with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Euronews reported that more than a quarter of seaborne crude oil and petroleum trade passes through Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz combined, while the Red Sea carries a large share of global container traffic. Renewed insecurity could therefore affect shipping schedules, insurance and energy costs far beyond Yemen.
The United Nations had warned in June that Houthi threats to curtail navigational rights in Bab el-Mandeb must stop. That official warning supplies important context for the capture without independently confirming the September 11 battlefield reports. It also shows why territorial change around Mayyun is strategically different from routine fighting elsewhere in Yemen: forces positioned there can threaten vessels moving through both channels.
The next indicators are whether commercial ships alter routes, whether the Houthis announce passage conditions, and whether Saudi-backed Yemeni forces attempt to retake the island. Regional intervention would risk widening a conflict already linked to attacks on Saudi territory and the broader Iran confrontation. For now, the verified development is the armed Houthi arrival on Mayyun following the government withdrawal, not a confirmed closure of the strait.