Houthis seize Perim Island and take control of Bab el-Mandeb

Houthi militants seized a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandeb strait and a town along its mainland coast on Friday¹. The island is Perim, which divides the strait into two shipping lanes; Houthi fighters reached it after government forces withdrew^3,5.

The seizure completes a takeover of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline^2,3. A day earlier, the rebels captured a key port from Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed government⁷. Saudi airstrikes hit the rebel-held Mokha airport as the island fell⁶.

The strait is described by wire services as vital to global shipping and as one of the world’s most important waterways^3,4. Semafor characterised the port capture as strengthening the Iranian proxy’s hold on one of the region’s two critical waterways⁷. The advance was made against a Saudi-backed government whose forces have been giving ground along the coast rather than holding it^5,7.

Why it matters to investors

The second of those two waterways is already compromised. Iran’s blockade of Hormuz has choked off shipments through the Gulf⁴, and hostile control of Bab el-Mandeb means the southern entrance to the Red Sea is now subject to a veto as well.

Traffic through the strait had already been falling before the island was taken⁶. With the mainland coast, the port and the island all in rebel hands^1,3,7, the question for carriers is no longer the level of risk on the route but whether the route is usable at all².

The political chain of command behind the advance is not obscure. Reporting places the movement in the orbit of Iran’s leadership, with an adviser to supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei quoted in the same context⁴. For investors, that turns a Yemeni battlefield event into a direct extension of the wider US-Iran conflict.

What to watch

The first indicator is whether the Saudi air campaign against rebel-held positions escalates beyond the Mokha airport strike⁶, and whether the government forces that withdrew from Perim attempt to retake it⁵.

The second is the practical effect on transits. Shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb had already declined⁶, and the question now is whether carriers treat the strait as closed rather than merely risky.

The third is the linkage between the two chokepoints. With Hormuz shipments already choked off⁴ and the Red Sea entrance under Houthi control², the two routes that carry the Gulf’s energy exports to Europe and Asia are contested at the same time.