Houthis Seize Perim Island, Putting Bab el-Mandeb in Jeopardy

Houthi forces captured Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Friday, extending a territorial advance that took the Yemeni port of Mokha the previous day and placed a second major oil-transit route under simultaneous threat alongside the Strait of Hormuz.

The island sits at the narrowest point of the strait, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Defense analyst Andreas Krieg told TIME that control of the position gives the Houthis "a vantage point from which the Houthis can operate with far less sophisticated technology" to target passing ships. On the same day, Houthi forces also took Dhubab, a mainland coastal town that overlooks the island.

Traffic through Bab el-Mandeb had already collapsed. Anadolu Agency data shows around 26 ships a day crossing in the week ending 11 September, against a pre-crisis average of 71. That is a drop of around 63 per cent.

The strait carries roughly 8.1 million barrels of oil a day. Saudi Arabia has relied on it for crude exports since the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted in July, but production still fell 23 per cent from July to August, with Saudi exports at a 13-year low.

The seizure came the day after the Houthi capture of Mokha, where fighters took the Red Sea port city on 10 September. Before those territorial gains, the group had been striking at ships directly: in August, a double-tap missile attack on a cargo ship northeast of Perim Island killed six people, including both rescuers who responded to the initial strike.

Houthi officials said transit through the strait was unaffected and that ships had no cause for concern, according to Turkiye Today. Shipping data showed traffic running well below its long-term average even before Friday's events.