The reported Houthi ground offensive around Mokha and north towards Al-Khawkhah is significant for a reason that goes beyond Yemen’s civil war: control of this coastline could give the Houthis greater leverage over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors.
Recent reporting confirms that Houthi attacks on Mokha have intensified, including repeated missile and drone strikes on the port. A major August 9 attack reportedly killed seven people and wounded about 30, while subsequent strikes continued.
However, claims that Houthi forces have now captured specific locations such as Al-‘Uraysh and Mafraq Al-Mukha, or that Saudi-backed forces are retreating from those positions, should be treated cautiously until independently verified.
What is much harder to dismiss is the broader escalation. The UN has warned that Yemen is at its highest risk of returning to large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce, with fighting intensifying between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces.
And Mokha is a particularly sensitive location. The port sits on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, roughly 75 kilometres from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow maritime gateway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Any sustained military campaign along this coastline could therefore have consequences far beyond Yemen.
That matters even more now because shipping through the region is already under pressure. A recent deadly Houthi attack on a commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb killed crew members, while shipping traffic through the strait has fallen significantly as companies reassess the risks.
So the concern isn’t necessarily that the Houthis are about to physically “close” Bab el-Mandeb. They don’t need to. If shipping companies believe vessels are increasingly vulnerable, they can choose to avoid the route, take longer journeys around Africa and accept higher insurance and fuel costs.
That is already the lesson from previous Red Sea disruptions. And if the Houthis manage to establish stronger positions along the coast while simultaneously threatening ships, the group could gain another bargaining chip in its confrontation with Saudi Arabia and its wider regional opponents.
The question now is whether this becomes another limited escalation or the beginning of a much larger ground war. Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering backing a Yemeni ground campaign to retake the Red Sea coast, which could turn the fighting into a much broader confrontation.
