# The Houthis just took the Red Sea's front door

> A rebel group now sits on the chokepoint that carries trade between Europe and Asia, and oil just crossed $100.
- Title: The Houthis just took the Red Sea's front door · NBC News
- Summary: A rebel group now sits on the chokepoint that carries trade between Europe and Asia, and oil just crossed $100. Control of Bab el Mandeb does not have to be…
- Keywords: yemen, houthis, red sea, oil, shipping, news, world, just, took, Red, Sea's, front
- Source: NBC News — https://nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/houthis-control-bab-el-mandeb-yemen-red-sea-saudi-iran-war-oil-rcna597186
- Author: Chantal Da Silva
- Published: 2026-09-11T13:46:52.523+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: yemen, houthis, red sea, oil, shipping, news, world
## A coastline falls in days
Houthi forces captured Perim island in the Bab el Mandeb Strait on Friday, a day after taking the port city of Mocha. Yemen's Red Sea coast is now effectively theirs.
## The government pulled back
Saudi-backed government troops advanced on Dhubab, then apparently withdrew from Perim altogether. The retreat handed the Houthis the strait's midpoint without a fight for it.
## An old war reignites
The civil war has run since 2014 and simmered for years. Fighting flared again in recent weeks, and the worry now is a full return to war.
## Two chokepoints, one squeeze
Hormuz once carried about 20% of the world's oil and has been disrupted since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran in late February. Saudi Arabia leaned on the Red Sea instead. That backup is now exposed.
## Oil breaks $100
Prices looked set to close the week above $100 a barrel, the first time since mid-May, driven by Yemen and fresh U.S.-Iran exchanges.
## Smoke over the pipeline
Satellite imagery showed a 60-mile smoke plume along Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, the main workaround for oil that cannot pass Hormuz. Neither side has commented.
## Safe for everyone but Saudis
A Houthi statement said navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi vessels, and vowed strikes until the blockade lifts. It also claimed nine aircraft shot down.

> maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels
## Not full control, still enough
Andreas Krieg of King's College London notes the western side of the strait is not Yemen, so sovereignty is out of reach. Contesting the waterway is not.

> It would, however, give them a dramatically stronger ability to contest, threaten and potentially deny commercial use of the waterway.
## 46,000 people displaced
The UN migration agency says at least 46,000 have fled since fighting escalated last week, across the West Coast and Taiz, with numbers rising by the hour.

> It's about families who are displaced and moving from one place because of this war.
## Key takeaway

Control of Bab el Mandeb does not have to be total to hurt. The ability to threaten shipping is enough to reprice global oil.