Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have captured Mayun island at the entrance to the Red Sea, the Associated Press reported on September 11, citing officials from both sides of the conflict. The territorial gain raises the stakes for a shipping corridor that has become increasingly important to Saudi oil exports.
The island, also called Perim, lies inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. A Yemeni government military official and a Houthi official confirmed its capture to AP on condition of anonymity. The development follows the group’s seizure of the nearby port of Mokha on September 10.
Why this waterway matters
The Red Sea has offered Saudi Arabia an alternative export route while the Iran war disrupts passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reports that the Houthi advance along Yemen’s coast is threatening that alternative, adding a second point of pressure on regional energy shipments.
Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Ships using the corridor can travel onward toward the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. Disruption therefore reaches beyond Yemen: the concern is access to an international transport route, with potential consequences for freight costs and energy supplies.
Reuters reported that the Houthi-run humanitarian operations coordination centre said navigation remained safe for shipping companies other than Saudi vessels. That is the group’s assertion, rather than an independent guarantee of safe passage.
A territorial gain is not a verified closure
Mayun’s capture should not be read as confirmation that all traffic through the strait has stopped. Control of land near a shipping channel and the actual ability of commercial vessels to pass are separate questions. Reporting on the seizure establishes a heightened threat; it does not by itself establish a complete blockade.
The distinction matters for readers assessing claims about an immediate global supply shutdown. The next evidence to watch is documented disruption to vessel movements, announcements from shipping operators and any official restrictions on navigation.
What comes next
The immediate questions are whether fighting spreads further along the coast and whether commercial operators change their routes. For Saudi Arabia and its trading partners, the central risk is that an export alternative becomes harder to use while the original Gulf route remains under strain.
Sources: Associated Press; Reuters, via Business Recorder. Hero: AI-assisted crop and tonal treatment of NASA’s 2010 imagery of Mayun and the adjacent peninsula; it does not show the current fighting.
