Yemen Red Sea Fighting Intensifies, Houthis Hit Saudi Border — SkimNews
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- Yemeni government forces renewed attacks on Houthi positions in Mokha, Dhubab, and Taiz province days after losing the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with presidential council member Sultan al-Arada calling the collapse "painful and regrettable."
- Houthis fired drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia on Sunday, prompting sirens in the southern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait, with Saudi civil defence reporting a projectile near the border injured two people and damaged a mosque.
- National Resistance forces reported more than 500 government fighters killed and roughly 1,500 wounded in fighting on Yemen's west coast over the past four weeks, alongside more than 1,000 Houthis killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces, in their first full casualty update.
- United Nations migration agency said more than 82,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since the start of September, with camp director Ahmad al-Masawi saying displaced people "left their homes quickly without any clothing" and are crammed into camps and roads in Aden.
- Houthi advance has brought fighting within about 32 km of the US military base in Djibouti across the water, where the International Organisation for Migration said more than 2,000 Yemenis have arrived after dangerous crossings.
- Houthis have been targeting Saudi oil infrastructure and Red Sea shipping as part of what they describe as a blockade, with markets remaining wary and oil prices rising again despite the group's claim it does not intend to threaten other countries' commercial shipping.
- Yemen faces the risk of renewed civil war after a 2022 ceasefire had largely reduced fighting, with the latest clashes on the Red Sea coast, cross-border strikes on Saudi Arabia, and growing displacement underscoring how quickly the conflict is widening again.
Why it matters: The Houthi advance places them within roughly 32 km of the US base in Djibouti and threatens the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint for global oil shipments that the Houthis are already targeting. For Saudi Arabia, the cross-border strikes resume a war it thought it was exiting under the 2022 ceasefire, while Yemen's government is reeling from its worst west-coast losses in years with 500+ fighters killed in a month.
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