Houthis extend hold over Bab al-Mandab and Yemen coast

• Perim Island tightens chokehold
• Saudi oil routes face pressure
• Red Sea diversions add weeks

The Yemeni Houthi militia extended their control over the Red Sea on Friday, reportedly capturing coastal territory in Yemen at the narrowest part of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The group’s forces reportedly captured Perim Island on Friday morning, according to local media and reported by Reuters. The island, about 3km off the coast of Yemen, is less than 20km from the Horn of Africa coastline, giving the militia a grip over shipping passing through the chokepoint.

It gives the group the ability to decide which ships can pass through the strait unhindered, according to Firas Modad, founder of Oxford-based risk analyst Modad Geopolitics.

Saudi tankers were already avoiding the strait before Perim’s capture, he said, “and now their position will be much, much worse”.

The fall of Perim is the latest in a series of Yemeni cities that have fallen to the Houthis after a lightning advance down the coastline this week that won them control of the port city of Mokha on Thursday.

By tightening their hold on Bab al-Mandab, analysts have said the group will look to implement their “siege for a siege” policy on Saudi Arabia, potentially to the point of not allowing Saudi oil exports to exit the Red Sea or vital Saudi imports to enter via its southern entrance.

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Ships can enter and exit the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to its north. But the route can add 30 days to the journey for ships sailing between Saudi Arabia and Asia, as it forces them to sail around the continent of Africa. Also, width restrictions in the canal prevent very large crude carriers from entering.

The Houthi advance places them less than 200km from the port of Aden and the inland city of Taiz, the two largest cities in Yemen not currently under Houthi control.

“It gives the Houthis momentum,” Modad said. “And having gained that momentum, they will work on improving their position within Yemen.”

Saudi Arabia has already seen oil exports fall following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz on its eastern coast, putting pressure on oil production, which in August fell to its lowest levels since 1990 according to the latest data from Opec.