The Gate Is Taken: Houthis Hold Yemen's Red Sea Shore and Oil Pays

Who gets to decide what passes through the Red Sea — and who, if anyone, will take that power back? That is the question forced by two days on Yemen's western coast, when Houthi fighters erased the last government-held harbour on the Red Sea and then planted themselves on the islands inside its southern gate. ^{9 45}

On Thursday, September 10, 2026, Houthi forces entered Mocha after a day of clashes, forcing government-aligned units to withdraw. ^{9 6} Mocha — Mokha, the town that gave mocha coffee its name — was not just another district capital. It was the internationally recognized government's last deep-water Red Sea harbour and the operational headquarters of the National Resistance Forces, the brigade commanded by presidential council vice-chair Tariq Saleh and entrenched there since 2017. ^{10 11 6}

The advance did not stop at the docks. By Friday, September 11, Houthi units had pushed south to Dhubab, the last significant coastal town facing the strait, then crossed by boat to Perim Island — Mayyun, the volcanic wedge in the middle of the Bab al-Mandeb that splits the waterway into two shipping channels and carries an airstrip — and on to the Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands and Zuqar Island after rocket fire and boat-borne assaults. ^{45 51 42} Government military sources said the takeover of the Bab al-Mandeb area was complete and that all territory previously held on the western coast had fallen. ^{45 48} In practical terms, the government's Red Sea coastal strip is gone; what remains is inland or farther south toward Aden. ^{51 45}

Mocha matters because of where it sits, not just what it is. The town lies in Taiz governorate, about 80 kilometres from the strait, a port that was the world's principal coffee port until Aden and Hodeidah overtook it in the nineteenth century. ^{2 10} Today it is the forecourt to a chokepoint barely 30 kilometres wide at its narrowest between Yemen and Djibouti, the southern gate of the Red Sea and the Suez route. ^{12 15} Roughly 12 percent of the world's oil and goods move through it — about 8.7 million barrels of crude and petroleum a day in 2023, about a tenth of global seaborne trade. ^{12 18} Holding Mocha with Perim and the Hanish group puts Houthi forces directly on the approaches, extending the range at which they can stop, search or strike a ship. ^{12 19}

Brent crude had already crossed $100 a barrel on September 9, before Mocha changed hands, then spiked above $105 after the port fell, with some reports touching roughly $108-109 before easing to about $100-105 in thin weekend trading. ^{22 23 28} WTI breached $100 for the first time since May 21, and oil jumped 6 percent in a single day as tanker attacks multiplied. ^{23 24} Brent remains below the year's high of $126 reached in April but has climbed roughly a quarter since early August on low stocks, reduced Middle East exports and fear of worse to come. ^{26 27} Ships bound for Asia now face detours of about a month around the Cape of Good Hope as refiners hunt alternatives and freight costs climb. ^{27 12}

The seizure landed inside a widening exchange with Riyadh. Houthi missile and drone barrages on energy and civilian sites in southern Saudi Arabia — Aramco-linked facilities and installations around Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran — on September 8, with follow-on attacks on September 9-10, wounded 73 people including women and children, and Saudi authorities said fires disrupted energy operations. ^{17 54} Saudi and coalition aircraft answered with intensified strikes across Houthi-held Yemen, including on Mocha airport after the port fell and across Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib and al-Jawf. ^{54 48}

The human accounting is still provisional but already heavy. ACLED recorded at least 276 deaths in battle between Houthi and government-aligned forces from September 3-7, while earlier tallies cited nearly 180 fighters killed in three days and more than 120 dead in the first days of combat. ^{51 33} A compilation of the 2026 offensives listed 278 killed on one side and 216 on the other, plus 29 civilians and tens of thousands displaced, figures to treat as provisional. ⁵¹ Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the offensive struck seven divisions and 38 brigades, leaving hundreds killed, captured or wounded. ⁵¹ Residents of Mocha described people injured in the streets as families fled. ⁹

Politics followed the battlefield. Saleh framed the loss as a tactical withdrawal to regroup and form an alternative command center south of the city, acknowledged deaths, injuries and heavy losses across the National Resistance, Giants Brigades, Nation's Shield and Taiz forces, and blamed Iranian planning and support. ^{52 53} A circulating audio clip in his voice ordering withdrawal was denounced by his own media as an AI clone, a claim that remains contested. ⁵² Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman publicly asked council head Rashad al-Alimi to dismiss Saleh and investigate him over Mocha falling without a fight, a political accusation, not an official finding. ⁴⁸ Al-Alimi himself said the events around Mocha and Bab al-Mandeb are not a purely Yemeni affair but a regional and international issue tied to global trade. ⁴⁸ Yemeni and Saudi officials describe the offensive as Iranian-directed with Iranian arms aiding the capture, Tehran denies controlling the Houthis, and Pakistan, under its defense pact with Riyadh, called on Tehran to restrain the group. ^{35 53}