Aden (South24)

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The Houthi militia occupied the strategic Mayyun Island, located at the heart of the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and historically part of South Yemen, on Friday, hours after taking control of key areas overlooking the Red Sea, including the coastal city of Al-Mokha. The development gives the Iran-backed group an unprecedented military presence at one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

A Yemeni official told Reuters and Agence France-Presse that boats carrying armed Houthi fighters had reached Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, following the withdrawal of government forces from the island on Thursday.

The island lies at the heart of Bab Al-Mandab and divides the strait into two shipping channels, giving it major strategic importance in monitoring maritime traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The Houthis have completed their control of the Bab Al-Mandab area and Mayyun Island, located in the middle of the strait.”

An eyewitness said Houthi gunmen were “deployed along the Bab Al-Mandab coastline and moving around in military vehicles.”

Mayyun Island had hosted units of the government navy and forces from the Southern Giants Brigades before they withdrew amid the Houthis’ rapid advance along the Western Coast.

The occupation of the island comes a day after the Houthis took control of the coastal city of Al-Mokha and advanced south toward Dhubab and Bab Al-Mandab, marking one of the most significant battlefield shifts in Yemen’s war in recent years.

On Friday morning, the Houthis launched an attack involving two missiles on the Khor Umayrah area in Lahj Governorate, in an apparent attempt to target government forces that had withdrawn from Al-Mokha the previous day.

The development was preceded by a Houthi advance toward the strategic Hanish Islands in the Red Sea, as part of a broad and rapid military push that has enabled the group to expand its control over coastal areas and islands near the international shipping lane.

The occupation of Mayyun and control of positions around Bab Al-Mandab place the Houthis in a stronger position to threaten maritime traffic, although this does not necessarily amount to effective control over the entire strait, through which significant volumes of international trade and energy shipments pass.

Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Rashad Al-Alimi had previously warned of the strategic repercussions of the Houthi advance toward Bab Al-Mandab.

During a meeting of Yemen’s Defense Council in Riyadh, Al-Alimi said the current confrontation with the Houthis was not a battle over “a position, district or front,” but rather “a comprehensive national battle” to restore state institutions.

The loss of Al-Mokha, Dhubab and Mayyun within a short period represents a major military and strategic setback for the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. For years, these areas had served as a key strategic depth for anti-Houthi forces along the Western Coast and around Bab Al-Mandab.

The developments come after months of deep divisions within the anti-Houthi camp, following Saudi airstrikes that targeted the Southern Armed Forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council in Hadramout and Al-Mahra.

Those developments contributed to weakening the military and political arrangements that had, for years, brought together different Yemeni forces against the Houthis, before the latest developments along the Western Coast exposed the extent of the fractures within that camp.