Red Sea Crisis: Houthi Attacks and the Bab el-Mandeb Blockade
Since late 2023, Yemen's Houthis have turned the Red Sea into a live maritime conflict zone. This primer explains the chokepoint, the shipping shock, the military response, and how the 2026 Iran war made the crisis worse.
The chokepoint by the numbers
Why the Red Sea matters
There is no cheap alternative
Suez handles roughly 12% of world trade and about 30% of global container traffic. Rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope adds roughly 10–14 days, extra fuel, crew wages and insurance. Those costs showed up in freight rates, delivery delays and consumer prices in Europe and North America.
Bab el-Mandeb is a natural bottleneck
The strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea is only about 18 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point. Anti-ship missiles, drones and small boats can cover it from the Yemeni coast, giving the Houthis a geographic advantage far beyond their conventional military strength.
The Houthis are fighting a different kind of war
Yemen's Houthi movement is not a naval power in the traditional sense. It uses cheap drones, ballistic missiles, loitering munitions and speedboats to threaten high-value commercial vessels. The goal is not sea control but economic coercion and political signalling: keep the Gaza war in the headlines, pressure Saudi Arabia and strain US naval resources.
The crisis is politically entangled
The Red Sea attacks are nominally about Gaza and Israel, but the Houthis also have their own war with Saudi Arabia and a relationship with Iran that is close but not fully controlled. In 2026 the Red Sea front effectively merged with the Hormuz crisis, with Houthi embargoes and Iranian strikes compounding one another.
Timeline: from first attacks to the second chokepoint
- Nov 2023
Houthi attacks begin
After Hamas's October 7 attack and Israel's response in Gaza, Yemen's Houthis began firing missiles and drones at commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, declaring they would target any vessel linked to Israel, the US or the UK.
- Dec 2023
Operation Prosperity Guardian
The US announced a multinational maritime task force to protect Red Sea shipping. Major container lines began rerouting around Africa, adding thousands of miles and roughly two weeks to Asia-Europe voyages.
- Jan 2024
US-UK strikes on Yemen
American and British forces began striking Houthi radar, missile sites and weapons depots in Yemen, recognising that passive defense could not stop the attacks.
- Feb 2024
Rubymar sunk
The Belize-flagged, Lebanese-operated bulk carrier Rubymar was hit by a Houthi missile, abandoned, and later sank — the first vessel lost to the crisis. The crew survived, but the event demonstrated that the group could not only disrupt but destroy shipping.
- 2024–2025
Stalemate and adaptation
Shipping rates and war-risk insurance premiums stayed elevated. Carriers built a two-tier market: some vessels paid higher premiums and transited the Red Sea; others accepted the longer, more expensive Cape route. The Houthis kept firing despite months of airstrikes.
- Jul 2026
Houthis join Iran's maritime embargo
During the 2026 US-Iran war, the Houthis announced their own maritime embargo in solidarity with Tehran. On Jul 22 they declared Bab el-Mandeb off-limits to Saudi Arabia, threatening a second chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
- Aug 2026
Saudi Arabia and Houthi tensions spike
A Houthi attack on a Saudi Aramco refinery and a separate attack on a vessel in Bab el-Mandeb killed several people. The UN warned the risk of a return to full Houthi-Saudi war was the highest since the 2022 truce.
What to watch next
The key indicators are maritime and commercial, not just military: war-risk insurance quotes for Red Sea voyages, the number of container lines still transiting versus rerouting around Africa, Houthi claims on shipping traffic, Saudi Aramco and port security alerts, and any Houthi-Saudi escalation. In 2026 the Red Sea front is also a Hormuz front: the two chokepoints now move together.
Live status for the Red Sea and Iran theaters is tracked on the main conflict dashboard. For the other major energy chokepoint, see the Strait of Hormuz primer.
Unclassified · OSINT · Compiled from open sources (UKMTO, US Central Command, Lloyd's List)