Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, Houthi officials said Monday, as Saudi-backed government forces sought to reverse rebel advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The takeover increases pressure on a route used for Saudi crude exports while repairs to a crucial Saudi oil pipeline damaged in a Sept. 10 attack could take three to five weeks, according to two regional officials briefed on the matter.
The Iran-backed Houthis’ latest advance follows their seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and another strategic island last week. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads out of the Red Sea, has become an important alternative for shipping after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the opening days of the war; a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas moves through Hormuz in peacetime.
Saudi Arabia has since used Bab el-Mandeb for crude exports, leaving its shipments more exposed to the Houthis’ gains. The developments are placing additional pressure on global oil supplies and prices and could give Iran more leverage in its war with the United States.
Saudi Arabia relies on the East-West Pipeline to carry crude from Gulf ports to ports on its western Red Sea coast, where it can be loaded onto tankers for export. The two officials said damage from the Sept. 10 attack, including at a major pumping facility, could take weeks to repair and leave the line mostly out of service, although oil might move through it only partially.
The territorial fighting has also deepened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Nearly 94,000 people have fled their homes since fighting between the Houthis and government forces escalated this month, the International Organization for Migration said Monday. Taiz and Lahj are the worst-hit areas, with 48,000 people displaced, while more than 2,000 have crossed the sea to Djibouti.
Around 200 schools in southwestern Yemen have been converted into shelters for arriving families, according to the International Rescue Committee. The World Health Organization said more than 500 people were killed during the weeklong period ending Saturday, raising fears that Yemen is moving closer to renewed civil war after a conflict that killed 150,000 people before a 2022 ceasefire.