Yemen’s disputed coastal gain puts a key shipping gateway in focus

More than 100,000 people have been displaced since Yemen’s fragile truce collapsed in July, and the renewed war is now centred partly on the coast beside a critical international shipping route. Government forces said on Monday they had recovered Dhubab district near the Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Houthis denied that claim, according to Al Jazeera, leaving control of the coastal district disputed as the government begins a much broader campaign.

Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, the government’s executive body, announced orders to recover all Houthi-held territory and restore state authority across Yemen. The offensive follows weeks of heavy fighting and Houthi advances along the Red Sea coast and around Taiz. Last month, the Iran-aligned group captured about 150 kilometres of coastline and areas around Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

A coastal battle with shipping stakes

For international trade, the location gives this round of fighting particular significance. Bab al-Mandeb is a critical shipping route, and Saudi Arabia has explicitly linked its support for Yemen’s government to ending the Houthi threat to vessels there and in the southern Red Sea. Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Malki said that support would continue until state institutions were restored and the shipping threat ended. He also cited recent Houthi attacks on several Saudi cities when defending the kingdom’s right to take military action.

Yemen’s government is seeking wider backing. Foreign Minister Afrah Al-Zouba appealed on Monday for international support for the country’s people and institutions against the Houthis, arguing that a stable Yemen serves interests beyond its borders. Her appeal came as government forces reported operations across several fronts, rather than a campaign confined to the coast.

Yemen’s stability is “in the world’s interest,” Foreign Minister Afrah Al-Zouba said.

The government army said it had conducted 1,122 operations in Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz governorates and along the western coast. Military spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili claimed 1,747 Houthi fighters had been “neutralised” and 364 military and logistical vehicles destroyed or disabled. Those figures have not been independently verified. He said the targets included weapons positions, supply lines and command centres, with aircraft, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers involved.

Taiz’s supply road adds another pressure point

The fighting is also putting links between major cities under pressure. Military sources told Reuters that the Houthis had advanced on strategic hilltops near Taiz over the preceding 48 hours, moving along the last remaining road connecting the city with Aden. Separately, AFP cited four security sources saying the group had cut a vital supply route between the two cities. Aden serves as the government’s interim capital. Al Jazeera’s Yemen bureau chief, Saeed Thabet, described Houthi tactics around Taiz as an effort to ease pressure on the coastal front while tightening the road blockade.

Further east, a military source told Al Jazeera that government forces attacked Houthi positions on Marib’s Ragwan front on Monday, alongside air strikes against positions and reinforcements. The Houthis have held Sanaa and much of Yemen’s populous northwest since 2014. Saudi Arabia’s military intervention the following year failed to remove them, while a UN-brokered truce in 2022 delivered several years of relative calm.

The next test is whether the government can turn its announced offensive into sustained territorial gains. Control of Dhubab remains contested in the public accounts, while the supply road around Taiz is another key point to watch. For shipping interests, the central issue remains the fighting around Bab al-Mandeb and the coalition’s stated goal of ending the threat to vessels.