Yemeni forces fighting for the internationally recognised government have withdrawn from the area overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, leaving the Iran-aligned Houthis in control of one of the world’s most important shipping passages.
The Southern Armed Forces announced the move on Sunday, saying their troops were redeploying from Dhubab Airport and the Bab el-Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate, towards Aden, where the government is based.
“This step is taken based on the priority of securing the capital, Aden, and the neighbouring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats,” the southern forces said in a statement.
The retreat hands the Houthis greater leverage over the narrow strait linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which a large share of seaborne trade between Asia and Europe passes on its way to Egypt’s Suez Canal. It also comes while Iran continues to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, a dual squeeze that would further isolate Gulf oil producers from their main export routes.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen including the capital, Sanaa, pushed south in September in an attempt to seize the country’s entire Red Sea coast. Government forces launched a campaign in October to recapture the coastal areas, but the Houthi advance brought them within reach of Bab el-Mandeb.
The fighting broke a truce brokered by the United Nations in 2022 and has become another front in the wider war between the United States and Israel and Iran, now in its ninth month. The Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia, a key American ally and the world’s largest crude exporter, striking ports, airports and facilities belonging to the state oil company Saudi Aramco, including the kingdom’s Red Sea export hub at Yanbu. Saudi Arabia has responded with strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Yemen has been mired in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis pushed the government south, and now faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Fighting is intensifying around Taiz, where about half of the 300,000 people displaced by the latest round of fighting have sought shelter. The city remains besieged, with aid unable to enter and civilians unable to leave.
The account of the withdrawal rests on the southern forces’ statement, as reported by Reuters.
Sources: Reuters — “Yemen government forces withdraw from area near Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Houthis in control” (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemen-government-forces-withdraw-area-near-bab-el-mandeb-strait-houthis-control-2026-11-15/)
