Houthis Seize Yemen Red Sea Port, Strike Saudi Arabia — SkimNews
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- Yemen's government lost the port city of Mokha and an island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Houthis, and responded on Sunday with airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab, and Taiz province.
- Houthi rebels fired drones and missiles into Saudi Arabia on Sunday, including at a military base just across the border; Saudi civil defence said a projectile injured two people and damaged a mosque and several buildings near the border.
- The UN migration agency reported more than 82,000 people displaced since the start of September, with over 2,000 Yemenis reaching Djibouti after fleeing across the water from the fighting.
- The National Resistance, an allied force previously in control of coastal areas, said more than 500 government fighters were killed on the west coast over the past four weeks and more than 1,000 Houthis killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces — its first comprehensive toll.
- The Houthi advance brought the group to within 32 kilometres of the main US military facility in Djibouti, which also hosts bases belonging to China, France, and Japan across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
- The conflict threatens to reverse a ceasefire that began in 2022 after 12 years of fighting; presidential council head Rashad al-Alimi called recent defeats "incidental" and said the government would "reclaim sovereignty over all national territories."
Why it matters: Houthi control of Mokha and a Bab el-Mandeb island places a shipping route the source calls "key" inside an active combat zone that has already added pressure on global oil supplies and prices. With the rebels 32km from the main US base in Djibouti, a war that a 2022 ceasefire had paused now threatens to draw in American and allied forces stationed at that facility.
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