Yemen's Government Forces Abandon Bab al-Mandeb to Defend Aden — Handing the Houthis the Strait

Southern Armed Forces redeploy from the world's most contested chokepoint to shore up a capital under threat. The move trades global maritime leverage for survival.

Yemen's internationally recognised government just made the kind of trade that signals existential pressure: it is pulling forces away from Bab al-Mandeb — one of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints — to defend Aden, its interim capital since the Houthis drove it from Sanaa more than a decade ago. A spokesman for the Southern Armed Forces confirmed the redeployment from Dhubab airport and surrounding areas on Sunday, framing it as a security priority for Aden and neighbouring governorates.

The move effectively concedes territory the government counteroffensive recaptured only months ago. That September push retook key positions around the strait, notably Dhubab, but stalled short of dislodging the Houthis from the coastal city of Mocha. Now the government is reversing course, sending reinforcements south and east while pledging to break the Houthi siege of Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, where roughly 150,000 displaced civilians are trapped with aid blocked and no exit. The Houthis have been pressing on multiple fronts simultaneously. They seized large areas along Yemen's western coast in September, captured highland positions north of Aden, and publicly stated they are preparing to advance on the city itself. Their drone and missile campaign against Saudi Arabia has intensified in parallel — two ballistic missiles were intercepted over Riyadh on Sunday, and drones were launched over the Mecca and Medina regions. The Houthis denied targeting Mecca, calling the allegation "a blatant lie." The Saudi-led coalition remains active — Yemen's armed forces reported 906 strikes against Houthi positions across Marib, al-Jawf, and Taiz, including 41 air strikes — but the ground reality is shifting against the government. Separately, the ICRC facilitated a unilateral Houthi release of 600 prisoners connected to the armed conflict, a move that reads as the Houthis projecting state-like authority from a position of military momentum. The strategic calculus is stark. Bab al-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and handles roughly 10 percent of global seaborne trade. Ceding ground there hands the Houthis proximity to a chokepoint they have already demonstrated willingness to threaten. Government spokesman Majid Al-Nazili explicitly called on the international community to help return the strait and west coast to government control, stressing its "vital importance for freedom of maritime navigation and international trade." What this reveals is a government coalition that cannot hold two fronts at once. The counteroffensive was meant to roll the Houthis back; instead, three months later the same forces are retreating to protect their capital. The Houthis' multi-axis pressure — coast, highlands, missile strikes on Saudi targets — is forcing triage on a coalition that lacks the depth to absorb it. The 20-year question is whether Aden itself is holdable, or whether this redeployment is simply the next step in a slow collapse of the government's territorial footprint. Every kilometre ceded near the strait increases the Houthis' leverage over international shipping, which is the one card that keeps external powers engaged in Yemen at all.