Yemen fighting intensifies as Houthis report gains near Red Sea route
Yemen’s conflict intensified on Sunday, September 13, as government forces attacked Houthi positions along the Red Sea coast and the Houthis launched further attacks toward southern Saudi Arabia, according to Associated Press reporting and United Nations statements. The escalation followed reports that Houthi forces had taken the port city of Mokha and Mayun Island, also known as Perim, near the Bab el-Mandeb.
The battlefield claims remain fluid and have not been independently confirmed in full. But the broader escalation is clear: On September 10, U.N. Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that the risk of a return to large-scale conflict had become a reality after years of relative calm following the 2022 truce.
What changed on the ground
Grundberg said fighting had intensified across multiple front lines, especially along Yemen’s strategic western coast. He said Ansar Allah, the name used by the Houthis, had gained control of Mokha, a port city about 75 kilometers from the Bab el-Mandeb, while stressing that fighting was continuing and the situation remained fluid.
AP reporting said Houthi forces also seized Mayun Island on September 11. The account cited a senior military official from Yemen’s internationally recognized government and a Houthi official, both speaking anonymously. Government forces said they planned to regroup and reinforce the coast, and later reported airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, Dhubab and elsewhere in Taiz province.
Those reports do not establish permanent Houthi control of the Bab el-Mandeb or a complete closure of the waterway. They do show why fighting around Mokha and Mayun is being watched beyond Yemen: the positions lie close to a maritime corridor connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Why the western coast matters
Mokha is a Red Sea port, while Mayun sits at the entrance to the Bab el-Mandeb. The strait is one of the main maritime approaches between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and AP reported that roughly 12% of global goods typically pass through it.
Any sustained military presence near the strait could affect route planning, insurance costs, naval deployments and the movement of energy cargoes. The immediate evidence supports heightened risk and threats to Saudi-linked shipping, not a verified shutdown of commercial traffic throughout the Red Sea.
The Houthis said Saudi vessels would be excluded from what they described as maritime restrictions, while claiming that other commercial shipping would remain safe. Those assurances have not removed concerns among governments, shipping companies and maritime-security experts.
Saudi Arabia faces a wider security challenge
The U.N. said Houthi cross-border attacks affected civilian and energy infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia and condemned the attacks. AP reported air-raid sirens in Abha and Khamis Mushait and said Saudi civil defense reported a projectile near the border that injured two people and damaged a mosque and other buildings. Saudi authorities blamed the Houthis, while the Houthis separately claimed attacks involving drones and missiles without providing evidence or a clear incident date.
AP also reported that Saudi Arabia shut down the East-West oil pipeline as a precaution after attacks. The report said the Saudi Energy Ministry did not identify who carried out those attacks. The combination of border incidents, possible threats to energy facilities and pressure on Saudi-linked vessels gives Riyadh a security problem that extends beyond Yemen’s land war.
The U.N. warning marks a major change
Grundberg said Ansar Allah had launched attacks in Taiz and Hudaydah in early September, with fighting spreading to Marib, Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda. He said civilians had reportedly been killed and that shelling of displacement sites in Marib had killed children and destroyed shelters.
He also urged the Houthis to stop attacks inside Yemen, across the Saudi border and against commercial vessels. The envoy warned that continued escalation could undermine the U.N.-led political process and draw Yemen further into the region’s wider confrontation.
Humanitarian pressure is rising
In his September 10 briefing, Grundberg said humanitarian actors had reported more than 11,400 newly displaced households across Yemen since September 3, with most in Taiz and southern Hudaydah. He said fighting continued to drive displacement.
A later AP report cited the U.N. migration agency as estimating that more than 82,000 people had been displaced since the beginning of September. That figure should not be merged directly with the household count: the numbers cover different reporting methods and may reflect different stages of humanitarian registration and verification.
The U.N. daily briefing published on September 8 separately reported more than 5,600 displaced households in Taiz and southern Al Hudaydah since September 3, at least 11 civilian casualties during the previous week, and reports that shelling in Marib killed two children and injured 15 other people. The page states that its transcript was produced through automatic speech recognition and is not an official U.N. record, so those figures should be treated as attributed briefing information rather than a final casualty database.
The International Organization for Migration’s earlier rapid-tracking update covered August 30 through September 5 and recorded 2,250 households, or about 13,500 people, displaced in Taiz, Al Hudaydah and Lahj. That earlier baseline is useful for showing how quickly the humanitarian picture has changed, but it is not a substitute for the later countrywide estimates.
What happens next
The immediate pressure points are further territorial changes along the western coast, additional attacks toward Saudi Arabia, possible responses by Saudi or allied forces, threats to commercial shipping or energy infrastructure, and the ability of aid agencies to reach displaced families.
For civilians, the most direct consequences are flight from homes, damaged shelters, casualties and reduced access to food, health care and other assistance. For shipping and energy markets, the central question is whether the reported gains near the Bab el-Mandeb lead to sustained attacks or a broader military response.
Diplomacy remains possible, but the United Nations is warning that the political process is being overtaken by events on the ground. The next meaningful sign of de-escalation would be a verified reduction in attacks and a return to structured negotiations—not simply statements from either side claiming control.
Sources
- U.N. Special Envoy Hans Grundberg’s September 10 Security Council briefing
- Associated Press report on the September 13 fighting
- IOM Yemen Rapid Displacement Tracking Update
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