A narrow stretch of water between Yemen and the Horn of Africa has become a new focal point in the widening regional crisis.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the world's most important maritime chokepoints, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean.
The waterway has gained renewed significance after Yemen's Houthi group advanced along the country's Red Sea coast, raising concerns about the security of one of the main routes connecting Asian and European markets.
On Friday, a Yemeni government military source told Anadolu that Houthi fighters had seized Perim Island, also known as Mayyun, which sits in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The takeover means the group has completed its control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the source added.
The Houthis were also reported to have taken the coastal town of Dhubab, which faces the island, and the Hanish Islands farther north.
A day earlier, the group seized the historic port city of Mokha, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government has signaled that it intends to respond.
Yemen's UN envoy Abdullah al-Saadi told an emergency Security Council session that the Houthis were continuing their military escalation and seeking to impose a “new reality” in the Red Sea.
So what exactly is Bab el-Mandeb, and why does it matter?
Bab el-Mandeb, whose Arabic name means the “Gate of Tears,” separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.
It connects the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea with the Red Sea. At the northern end of the Red Sea is Egypt's Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shortcuts between Asia and Europe.
That makes Bab el-Mandeb the southern gateway to the Suez corridor.
A ship traveling between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal must first pass through Bab el-Mandeb.
The strait is about 18 miles (29 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point, with shipping traffic divided between two channels.
Perim Island divides the passage, with a channel between the island and mainland Yemen and a wider passage toward the African side.
Its location gives whoever controls the island an important vantage point over vessels approaching or leaving the Red Sea.
The Hanish Islands, farther north along Yemen's western coast, also sit close to important maritime approaches.
Control of these positions, together with Mokha and Dhubab, could give the Houthis a significantly stronger military presence around the shipping route.
Bab el-Mandeb is not only an oil route.
The strait forms part of a wider maritime corridor carrying manufactured goods, agricultural commodities, grain, fertilizers, vehicle parts, electronics and other products between Asian and European markets.
Before the latest cycle of Red Sea disruption, the Suez Canal handled an estimated 12% to 15% of global trade and about 22% of worldwide seaborne container trade in 2023, according to UN Trade and Development.
Bab el-Mandeb is indispensable to that route. If ships cannot safely enter the Red Sea from the south, much of the commercial value of the Suez Canal as an Asia-Europe shortcut is lost.
Vessels must instead sail around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. For an oil tanker traveling from the Arabian Sea to Europe, the diversion can add approximately 15 days, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The longer journey consumes more fuel, ties up ships and crews for additional time, reduces the number of vessels available elsewhere and raises freight and insurance costs. Those expenses can eventually filter through to the prices paid by manufacturers and consumers.
The consequences have already been demonstrated. After the Houthis began attacking commercial shipping in late 2023, oil flows through Bab el-Mandeb fell from 9.3 million barrels per day in 2023 to 4.1 million in 2024 as operators diverted vessels around Africa.
By May 2025, tonnage passing through the Suez Canal remained 70% below its 2023 level, according to UN Trade and Development.
The latest crisis has given the strait another layer of importance: the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, is the main maritime outlet for much of the oil and liquefied natural gas produced in the Persian Gulf.
The ongoing conflict involving Iran and the US has sharply reduced traffic through the waterway.
US Energy Information Administration data show that oil flows through Hormuz fell from 21.6 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 4.9 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026.
Saudi Arabia responded by moving more crude through its East-West pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea, allowing the kingdom to bypass Hormuz.
As a result, oil and petroleum-product flows through Bab el-Mandeb climbed from 5.4 million barrels per day in the final quarter of 2025 to 8.1 million per day in the second quarter of this year.
This has turned the Red Sea route into a crucial relief valve for an energy market already coping with restricted Gulf exports.
Yet Yanbu’s location creates a geographical divide. Saudi oil destined for Europe can travel north through the Suez Canal or Egypt’s Suez-Mediterranean, or SUMED, pipeline without crossing Bab el-Mandeb.
Cargoes heading from Yanbu to major Asian customers, however, normally sail south through Bab el-Mandeb. If that route becomes unusable, those ships would have to travel north through Suez and then circle Africa, a substantially longer and more expensive journey.
Territorial control on the Yemeni side would significantly improve the Houthis’ ability to threaten shipping, but it would not give the group uncontested command of the full waterway.
The strait is bordered on the western side by Djibouti and Eritrea, and the principal international shipping passage extends toward the African coast.
International law also protects navigation through straits connecting two parts of the high seas or exclusive economic zones. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ships and aircraft enjoy a right of transit passage that should not be impeded.
The International Maritime Organization reaffirmed in July that transit through international straits must not be threatened, denied, hampered or suspended.
news_share_descriptionsubscription_contact
