The Houthi capture of Mokha, a Red Sea port city in Yemen, has given the group control of a coastline stretching to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern gateway to one of the world’s most heavily trafficked shipping routes, military sources and witnesses say.
Houthi fighters moved into Mokha after fierce clashes with Saudi-backed pro-government forces on Wednesday night, prompting many families to flee. By Thursday, residents reported Houthi fighters patrolling the streets while government offices and shops remained closed.
How far the Houthis have advanced
According to ACLED, Houthi forces advanced roughly 150km along the Red Sea coast in a single week, capturing Mokha and reaching Bab el-Mandeb. On Friday, Yemeni government forces withdrew from the island of Perim, also known as Mayyun, which sits in the middle of the strait, with witnesses reporting Houthi forces moving onto the island shortly after.
A Yemeni military source told AFP that Houthi fighters had also seized Zuqar Island in the Red Sea, around 80km north-west of Mokha, after launching rockets and a ground assault using boats. A local government official told AFP: ‘The Houthis have completed their takeover of the Bab al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island, which is located in the middle of the strait.’
Stakes for global oil markets
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait carries enormous volumes of energy. According to the US Energy Information Administration, as cited by Time, 8.1 million barrels of oil per day passed through the waterway during the second quarter of 2026. The strait links Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
Saudi Arabia’s exposure to the route has grown considerably. The Africa Center reports that Saudi Arabia increased oil shipments via its Red Sea port of Yanbu from roughly 1 million to 4.9 million barrels per day, a shift driven by the US and Israel’s war effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf. That reliance now places Saudi exports directly in range of the Houthi-controlled coastline.
Oil prices hit $100 a barrel for the first time since July following US and Houthi strikes in the region. The Houthi capture of Mokha and the surrounding coastal corridor has contributed to that surge, with the group’s escalating offensive raising fears over the security of one of the world’s critical energy corridors.
Residents flee, command retreats
‘The takeover came without warning. Panic spread throughout the area, forcing people to flee amid distressing scenes of injured people lying in the streets with no-one there to help them,’ one man told BBC Arabic’s Middle East Lifeline programme.
Another resident said Houthi fighters were patrolling Mokha’s streets on Thursday. ‘At the moment, we don’t know what Ansar Allah will do,’ he said, using the group’s formal name. ‘Everyone is afraid for their safety.’
Many displaced families were heading east towards Aden. ‘We fled with our children and kept running. We have no bedding, no home, nothing with us. Everything was destroyed within an hour,’ one woman told BBC Arabic.
Tarek Salah, leader of the pro-government National Resistance Forces, confirmed he had moved his command centre on the west coast to a ‘safe location’, adding that his forces had paid ‘a heavy price in recent days in the face of a Houthi offensive that was planned and supported by Iran’.
Broader offensive and Saudi strikes
Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed and thousands displaced since the Houthis launched their south-western offensive a week ago. The Houthi capture of Mokha forms part of that wider push, which has also involved missile and drone attacks on cities and oil facilities in southern Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, the Houthis launched dozens of drones and missiles at southern Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 civilians and causing fires at several oil facilities that led to a temporary halt in operations, according to Saudi authorities. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said Saudi warplanes carried out 64 strikes across the western provinces of Taiz, Hudaydah, Marib and Jawf over the previous 24 hours.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for Saudi air strikes on territory they control, including one on a prison in the town of Hazm in Jawf province that they said killed at least 23 civilians.
The group’s Supreme Political Council asserted its ‘right to defend [Yemen’s] sovereignty and territorial waters while simultaneously reassuring the international community that navigation in the Red Sea remains safe’. However, the Houthi-run humanitarian operations co-ordination centre confirmed that an embargo on Saudi ships remained in place.
The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, urged Arab states and other countries to help protect Yemen’s coasts and restore state control.
