Houthis take Greater and Lesser Hanish, tightening hold on Bab el-Mandeb

Yemeni government officials and a Houthi official said on 14 September that Ansar Allah fighters had moved onto Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish after hundreds of government-allied troops pulled off the archipelago. The two islands sit about 160 kilometres north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow passage that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

The deployment follows last week's capture of the mainland port of Mokha, about 80 kilometres from the strait, and of Mayun, also called Perim, which sits inside the strait itself. Together the three positions give the Houthis a chain of lookout and firing points along the lane that Saudi Arabia has used to move crude after traffic through the Strait of Hormuz tightened during the Iran war.

Two government officials and one Houthi official described the Hanish landing to journalists on condition of anonymity. They said the withdrawal of the garrison, not a prolonged fight on the islands, decided the outcome. The Hanish group had been held by the United Arab Emirates and its southern Yemeni allies for years. The nearest large American facility is in Djibouti, across the strait, roughly 32 kilometres from Mayun.

What changed on the water

Bab el-Mandeb is one of two chokepoints that carry a large share of seaborne oil between Asia, Europe and the Mediterranean. Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, normally handles about a fifth of globally traded oil and gas. With that route under competing US and Iranian restrictions, more Saudi barrels have been pointed at the Red Sea. Houthi statements in July already framed Saudi oil trade as a target. The island chain now sits on that substitute path.

On 14 September the group also fired drones and missiles at Saudi military sites. Alerts were issued in Khamis Mushait and Abha. A projectile that fell near the Yemeni border damaged a mosque and other buildings and injured two people. Riyadh, which backs Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, did not announce a new air campaign in response that day. China said it was deeply concerned by further Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and called strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure unacceptable.

The land war behind the islands

Fighting on the Red Sea coast intensified after a UN truce that had largely held since July 2022 broke down. Since about 3 September, reporting from the coast has put civilian deaths in the low hundreds. Houthi columns have pushed toward Marib and Taiz, both still listed under government control. Government aircraft struck Houthi positions along the coast on 13 September.

Sultan al-Arada, a member of the presidential council, called the collapse at Mokha and along the west coast "painful and regrettable" and said units were regrouping. Rashad al-Alimi, who leads the council, described the losses as incidental and said the government's aim remained recovery of institutions and sovereignty over all national territory. One official conceded a painful defeat when Mokha and Mayun fell.

More than 80,000 people have been displaced in two weeks, including more than 2,000 who crossed by boat to Djibouti. Thousands of families left homes in Taiz and nearby provinces in a single day around 14 September. Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, said many arrived without enough food or water and that some villages emptied. Temporary shelters have been reported in Aden's Dar Saad district.

Talks that did not happen

Gulf states called off planned contacts with Iran after Houthi ballistic missile fire at Saudi Arabia and at Yemeni government forces. A separate Oman meeting on Hormuz routing, set for 14 September, was postponed. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the delay was in the interests of consensus. The diplomatic pause leaves the Red Sea question without a scheduled forum in the same week that the islands changed hands.

The internationally recognised government said it would send more forces to the Red Sea coast. Whether those units can retake Mayun or the Hanish pair is an open military question. For shipowners the immediate fact is simpler. A militia that already fires at Saudi energy sites now holds the islands that sit on the detour around Hormuz. Insurers and routing desks will price that before any council statement does.