Yemen’s Houthis have seized Perim Island at the mouth of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, consolidating their control over a key international shipping route and extending a rapid offensive that has displaced at least 46,000 people in a matter of days.
The capture of the island, also known as Mayyun, followed the fall of the strategic port city of Mokha to Houthi forces on Thursday, according to military sources. A Yemeni military official told AFP that the Houthis now control the entire coastline. Pro-government forces withdrew from Perim on Friday. Witnesses and news agencies reported Houthi forces moving onto the island.
The advances matter because Perim sits at the narrowest point of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a waterway that has grown more critical since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the conflict between the United States and Iran. Saudi Arabia has relied on the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait for shipping oil to customers in Asia, and the escalation has contributed to a surge in oil prices.
Diplomatic pressure on Washington
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, has personally pressed US President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis during their rapid advance, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Trump has declined direct involvement. He offered intelligence and targeting support instead. A senior Trump administration official later told the BBC, ‘We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen government regarding regional stability.’ Saudi Arabia has not publicly commented on the latest developments.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the ‘large-scale’ military operation was launched on 3 September due to Saudi Arabia’s ‘blatant aggression’ against what he called ‘our dear people.’ He claimed the Houthis had expelled ‘Saudi enemy’ forces from six districts in the Taiz and Hodeidah regions, and that hundreds of troops had been killed, wounded or captured. The statement did not mention Perim. The Houthis said their operation to expel Saudi-backed forces had been a ‘success’ and that ‘maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels.’ The group earlier said it posed no threat to international shipping but reiterated its threat to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.
Displacement and humanitarian crisis
The International Organization for Migration said on Friday that at least 46,000 people have been displaced since fighting escalated, and the agency described the number as ‘alarmingly rising by the hour.’ IOM director general Amy Pope said, ‘Families are being forced to flee for the second or third time in this conflict, with almost nothing left.’ The IOM said many people had fled Mokha with their belongings overnight after the Houthis captured the city. Entire villages were said to have been abandoned in some areas. The agency called on all parties to guarantee safe humanitarian access and protect civilians, aid workers, and humanitarian assets.
The UN also raised concern over the Houthis seizing a key humanitarian compound and its assets in Mokha. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the compound housed staff of UN agencies working to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in the area. All UN personnel had left before the seizure and were safe and accounted for. Haq stressed that humanitarian personnel, premises, and assets ‘must be respected and protected at all times.’
Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen researcher at the London-based Chatham House thinktank, told Al Jazeera that the latest escalation ‘will create two new crises’: further internal displacement and rising prices for goods inside Yemen. He said more than 10,000 families had been displaced in the last week alone. ‘Yemen was already going through one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world,’ Al-Muslimi said. ‘It got terribly worse after the Houthis cracked down on aid organisations in northern Yemen,’ he said. ‘But the war continued despite the fragile truce, and what that meant was the destruction of what remained of the economy, with millions of families left without income.’
The Houthis ousted Yemen’s internationally recognised government in 2015, triggering Saudi military intervention in the civil war. The group now controls much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. A truce that had largely held for more than four years effectively collapsed in July. A Saudi-led coalition has carried out air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas in western Yemen in support of pro-government forces, and the Houthis have launched missiles and drones at cities and oil facilities in southern Saudi Arabia. Al-Muslimi warned that because the fighting is occurring along a maritime trade corridor, it will drive further violence both inside and outside Yemen. ‘The Yemeni population will continue to suffer, first and foremost, more than anyone else, inside or outside the country,’ he said.