Yemen's war
Yemen's war resumed in July 2026, and on 10 and 11 September the Houthis took the port of Mocha and Perim Island, giving one side of the war control of Bab el-Mandeb, the strait that carries Red Sea traffic toward the Suez Canal.
Yemen's war had gone quiet enough to stop being news. The United Nations brokered a two-month truce on 2 April 2022, the parties renewed it twice, and it expired on 2 October 2022. The UN counts more than four years of relative calm from that truce. Euronews dates the return to fighting to July 2026, when the Houthis let an Iranian plane land in defiance of Saudi control of Yemeni airspace and Riyadh struck the airport in reply. The fighting reached the Red Sea coast in September.
In early September the Houthis attacked in Taiz and Hodeidah, and the fighting spread to Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda. On Thursday 10 September they took Mocha, a Red Sea port about 75 kilometres from the strait, and government forces pulled back. Tariq Saleh, a member of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, called that a tactical withdrawal. The next day Houthi boats reached Perim Island, in the middle of Bab el-Mandeb, and the group also took Dhubab and Murad. Yemen's whole Red Sea coast changed hands in 18 hours, Euronews reported.
Bab el-Mandeb is 18 miles wide at its narrowest and links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The US Energy Information Administration estimated 6.2 million barrels a day of oil and petroleum products through it in 2018. For the first half of 2023 it put the Suez Canal, the SUMED pipeline and Bab el-Mandeb together at about 12 percent of seaborne-traded oil. Operators who avoid the Red Sea must round the Cape of Good Hope, which adds weeks and cost, Caroline Rose of the Soufan Center told Euronews.
The government has not accepted the loss of Mocha. On 10 September its field commanders told Al Jazeera that attempts to retake the port were under way. State broadcaster Saba TV had reported that the army retook Tabbat al-Khazan, in the Jabal Habashi district west of Taiz, on Friday 4 September; the Houthis did not comment. Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Presidential Leadership Council, says Mocha and the strait are a regional and international matter tied to global trade, and has called on the international community to intervene.
The war runs inside Yemen and across the Saudi border. On Saturday 19 September the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh at dawn, and Saudi authorities reported no dead and no damage. The UN migration agency said on 11 September that the offensive had killed more than 500 people and displaced about 46,000. Government military sources, quoted by Euronews, said they did not know the fate of more than 2,000 soldiers besieged on the Hanish islands.
”This renewed war should alarm us all. It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.”
The numbers
What the comparison shows
Where they agree
Commercial shipping is the one subject all three raise. Grundberg asks the Houthis to stop attacks and threats against commercial vessels. Al-Alimi ties Mocha and the strait to global trade and wants the international community to act. Saree describes navigation as safe for everyone but Saudi ships.
Where they split
Saree says there is no problem for shipping and the other two say there is. He calls navigation safe for everyone but Saudi ships. Grundberg asks the Houthis to stop attacks and threats against commercial vessels, and al-Alimi says Bab el-Mandeb cannot become another Strait of Hormuz. Both of those ask someone to change what the Houthis do at the strait.
What nobody is saying
Saree calls navigation safe for everyone except Saudi ships. He does not say how a shipowner is supposed to establish a vessel's status before entering an 18-mile strait held by one side, or what follows if a ship is judged Saudi.
Who says what
He told the Security Council on 10 September 2026 that the offensive had ended more than four years of relative calm since the 2022 truce. He repeated his call on the Houthis to stop attacks inside Yemen and across the Saudi border, and to cease attacks and threats against commercial vessels.
”This renewed war should alarm us all. It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.”This renewed war should alarm us all. It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.
He says what happened at Mocha and Bab el-Mandeb is not a purely Yemeni affair but a regional and international matter tied to global trade. He called on the international community to intervene to end what the Houthis have done, at the strait and at the port.
”cannot become another Strait of Hormuz”cannot become another Strait of Hormuz
He said on the evening of 11 September that shipping is safe for every company except Saudi vessels, which the Houthis have already banned. Euronews presents this as a correction to a Houthi politburo member who had said the group posed no danger at all to Red Sea cargo.
”Maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which have already been banned”Maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi ships, which have already been banned
Our coverage
- Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi military chiefs meet in Riyadh after Houthi missile attacksSaturday, 26 September 2026
- Houthi missile toward Riyadh intercepted in first alert on Saudi capital since JulySunday, 20 September 2026
- Houthis say Saudi-led coalition launched 26 strikes in 24 hours as Taiz clashes kill dozensSaturday, 19 September 2026
- Houthi drone intercepted near Mecca as Saudi Arabia vows responseFriday, 18 September 2026
- Houthis seize Perim Island, completing control of the Bab el-Mandeb straitSaturday, 12 September 2026
- Houthis seize Yemen's Mocha port, tightening grip on Red Sea chokepointFriday, 11 September 2026
- Yemeni government forces retake position from Houthis near Taiz in heaviest fighting since 2022 truceSaturday, 5 September 2026
- Yemen government and Houthis trade dozens of attacks as fighting escalatesFriday, 21 August 2026
- The Houthis renew missile and drone attacks on the port of al-MakhaMonday, 10 August 2026