The Houthis have stated this Friday that the offensive launched last week against the internationally recognized Yemeni government forces, supported by Saudi Arabia, has been a "success" after taking key enclaves around the Bab el Mandeb strait. After these movements, the group has guaranteed the security of maritime traffic in the area, a strategic corridor whose stability concerns the international community, even more so due to the tension crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
The spokesperson for Houthi military operations, Yahya Sari, explained that on September 3, the group launched "a qualitative and large-scale military operation" aimed at "striking the mobilization of the criminal Saudi enemy" and responding to the "continuous siege" on the areas it has controlled since 2014, in a conflict that has already lasted almost twelve years.
In a statement disseminated on social media, Sari emphasized that there has been a "significant participation" of "the free tribes" in the offensive and that it was launched "from several fronts" with the goal of occupying several towns on the western coast, including Mocha and other nearby points to the Bab el Mandeb strait, access to the Red Sea.
"The operation culminated successfully and with the divine favor of Almighty God," Sari stated, who added that "the intense air coverage" of Saudi forces did not manage to stop the Houthi advance. According to his data, they would have taken six towns in the provinces of Taiz and Hodeida, "covering a total area of 5,400 square kilometers."
Sari emphasized that "hundreds of enemy troops" have died, been injured, or been captured. He also assured that his forces have shot down nine Saudi drones and have freed an unspecified number of Houthi fighters who had been "held for years" in prisons in these areas.
"The Armed Forces of Yemen affirm that maritime navigation is safe for all companies, except for Saudi vessels, which are already subject to a blockade," he noted, referring to the blockade announced in June by the rebels against Saudi ships, which they presented as a response to the "siege" imposed by the international coalition led by Riyadh in support of the internationally recognized government.
The message has been disseminated a day after the Houthis took control of Mocha —whose airport has been the subject of Saudi bombings in recent hours, according to Yemeni media— and continued their advance to dominate this Friday the towns of Dhubab and Murad, thus consolidating control over the entire coastal strip of the Red Sea that was still not in their hands.
According to the Qatari network Al Jazeera, government forces have been forced to retreat under Houthi military pressure, which would have allowed the group to advance towards the islands of Mayun and Zuqar, in Bab el Mandeb, where fighting continues. This setback represents a significant blow to the internationally recognized authorities.
The Bab el Mandeb strait, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa and is about 29 kilometers wide, is a key transit point. The deployment of Houthi forces in this strip of Yemen would allow them —as a group backed by Iran, despite ideological and organizational differences— to threaten maritime transit even with their artillery systems.
The evolution on the ground puts at risk the fragile ceasefire agreed upon in 2022, after years of war, and occurs amid the United Nations' mediation efforts to reach a political agreement that ends the conflict that began in 2014, responsible for one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet.