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Houthis seize island at Bab el-Mandeb mouth
September 12, 2026
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis seized the island dividing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the port of Mocha, tightening their hold on the Red Sea shipping route.
The Houthis are an Iran-backed movement that controls much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, and sits astride the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Key facts
- Roughly 12% of goods traded worldwide normally pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the passage at the Red Sea's southern tip.
- Figures from the International Energy Agency show that crude leaving Saudi Arabia by way of the Red Sea terminal where the pipeline ends has grown to more than twice the volume seen before the Feb. 28 American and Israeli strikes on Iran.
- The island of Mayun, which sits where the Red Sea narrows, fell to Yemen's Houthi rebels, a movement backed by Iran. That route had become one of the ways Riyadh could move oil and other goods after Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
- According to a source inside the Yemeni government recognised abroad, speaking to the BBC, forces aligned with Tehran took control of Perim Island, which lies where the Bab al-Mandab Strait opens.
BBC reports that the Houthis now hold the islet sitting in the middle of the southern gateway to the Red Sea, citing a figure inside the Yemeni government that outside states treat as legitimate. NPR reports the same capture, calling the island Mayun rather than Perim, and sets it at the sea's southern doorway. CNBC describes a bare scrap of high ground splitting the channel that joins the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Nothing separates the four accounts on the essentials. NPR gives the traffic figure, about 12% of the world's goods, and CNN explains why the lane counts for more now than a year ago, with Riyadh sending part of its oil south to dodge Hormuz.
Emphasis, not fact, is what parts the coverage. CNN treats the defenders' collapse as self-inflicted: when Houthi units walked into Mocha on Thursday, the Yemeni formations facing them were padded with fictitious troops drawing pay, leaving roughly 20% of the manpower the paperwork promised. The analyst Mohammed al-Basha, quoted by CNN, blames divided leadership for that hollowing out. CNBC keeps its lens on money, relaying an ING assessment from Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey that Saudi export terminals and crude moving out through the Red Sea face growing danger. NPR gathers the official strands: Esmail Baghaei of Iran's foreign ministry announces talks in Oman on Monday with Gulf neighbours, Iraq included, and Farhan Haq of the United Nations says the rebels took over premises in Mokha used by U.N. personnel, who had already got out before the city changed hands. NPR adds a measure of how much the route now carries, attributing it to the International Energy Agency: Saudi crude leaving the Red Sea terminal fed by the East-West pipeline has more than doubled since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.
American policy sits between the market and battlefield readings. CNBC quotes an unnamed senior official who frames the task as keeping the sea lane open while letting states in the region carry the load. CNN reports American troops attached to a combined headquarters stood up only weeks ago, a response to Iranian help flowing to the rebels. What holds: the island and Mocha have changed hands, the strait's share of world trade, and the Monday session in Oman. What does not: how the Houthis use their new perch, and whether the eastward push al-Basha expects arrives.
In a research note dated Friday, Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey of ING wrote: "Saudi energy infrastructure and crude oil exports from the Red Sea are increasingly at risk, with the Houthis in Yemen targeting Saudi Arabia,"
Still developing
The Houthi statement claiming the western coast advance makes no mention of Perim Island, leaving the group's own account of what it holds incomplete, and the extent of the movement east that satellite and open-source imagery is said to show has not been pinned down. The agenda and outcome of Monday's meeting in Oman, which is to cover earlier Iran and Oman talks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, are open.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- BBC — Houthis claim major advance in Yemen and tighten grip on Red Sea shipping lane - BBC
- CNBC — Houthis reportedly advance to key Red Sea island, further threatening crucial oil choke point - CNBC
- CNN — ‘A f***-up of epic proportions’: Blame game begins after Iran-backed Houthis’ lightning advance down Red Sea coast
- NPR — Yemen's Houthis capture a Red Sea island in threat to shipping
- apnews.com — Iran-backed Houthi rebels take strategic port city in Yemen, raising threat to Red Sea shipping - apnews.com
- Al Jazeera — Fighting re-erupts in Yemen and civilians are paying the price