Fighting in Yemen intensified Sunday as government forces launched attacks on Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea, while the Houthis fired missiles and drones toward neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s government.
Yemen’s government said it would send more forces to the Red Sea coast after the Houthis captured the port city of Mokha and an island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait last week. A senior official described the defeat as “painful.”
The Bab el-Mandeb is a key shipping route and an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
The escalation, particularly Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities and shipping in the Red Sea, is adding pressure on global oil supplies and prices and could give Iran greater leverage in its conflict with the United States.
As Yemen faces the risk of another civil war, the United Nations said more than 82,000 people had been displaced by fighting since the beginning of September.
A woman who fled the Red Sea town of Khawkha in Hodeida province shortly before it fell to the Houthis said a mortar shell landed nearby as she escaped during the night.
“I saw with my own eyes cars and buses burning, and bodies of children and women were lying on the road in a horrific scene,” she said. She spoke anonymously because of concerns for her and her family’s safety.
Houthis claim attacks on Saudi Arabia
Saudi authorities activated warning sirens Sunday afternoon in the southern city of Abha and Khamis Mushait province, urging residents to take shelter from possible incoming attacks. Both areas have been targeted by the Houthis several times in recent weeks.
Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the group had used drones and missiles to attack targets in Saudi Arabia, including a military base near the Yemeni border. He did not provide evidence or specify when the attack took place.
Saudi civil defense authorities said overnight that a projectile landed in another area near the Yemeni border along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. Saudi authorities blamed the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia did not report any new attacks against Houthi positions.
The Houthis have been targeting Saudi oil facilities and shipping as part of a recently announced blockade. They have said, however, that they do not intend to target commercial shipping from other countries.
Yemen says more than 500 government fighters killed
The National Resistance, a government-allied force that had controlled parts of the western coast, said more than 500 government fighters had been killed there over the past four weeks. It was the group's first comprehensive casualty figure.
The force also claimed that more than 1,000 Houthis had been killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces. A Houthi spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
More than 40 million people live in Yemen, where many fear a return to the civil war that began more than a decade ago. The conflict killed about 150,000 people and pushed millions toward famine. Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia have fought the Houthis for years, although a ceasefire that began in 2022 largely halted the fighting.
A senior Yemeni government official said government forces would return to the Red Sea coast and fight back. Residents fleeing the Houthi advance told The Associated Press that they saw government forces withdrawing and telling civilians to flee.
Sultan al-Arada, a member of Yemen’s ruling Presidential Leadership Council, described the loss of Mokha and other areas along the western coast as “painful and regrettable.” In a televised interview late Saturday, he said government forces were regrouping and would return to the fighting.
Presidential council leader Rashad al-Alimi sought Sunday to play down the setbacks, calling them “incidental,” according to comments published by the state-run SABA news agency. He said the government remained committed to restoring state institutions and reclaiming sovereignty over all national territory.
The Yemeni military said Sunday that it carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and other areas of Taiz province. The Houthis reported attacks by Saudi-backed forces in Taiz and artillery shelling in Saada province, a Houthi stronghold near the Saudi border.
Houthi advance brings them closer to US base in Djibouti
The Houthi advance has brought the group to within about 20 miles (32 kilometres) of a US military base in Djibouti, across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The base is the main US military facility in Africa. Djibouti also hosts military bases operated by China, France and Japan.
The small Horn of Africa country is already receiving Yemenis fleeing the fighting across the dangerous waters. More than 2,000 Yemenis have arrived in Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.
Djibouti’s Economy and Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh said on X that the country’s navy, coast guard and other specialized agencies were carrying out rescue operations and providing emergency assistance.
Displaced Yemenis fear for their future
The UN migration agency said more than 82,000 people had been displaced across Yemen since the start of September.
“The displaced people are in a very bad condition,” said Ahmad al-Masawi, director of the Al Salam camp in Aden. He appealed to international organizations for help.
“They left their homes quickly without any clothing or anything. They are crammed in camps, houses and even on roads,” he said.
Hussein Haydara sat outside a shelter at the camp while his children waited to be assigned a tent. He said he was worried about the shelter’s distance from schools, hospitals and markets and questioned how his family would survive in the coming weeks and months.
Haydara had previously fled his home in Hodeida when the Houthis took control of the area in 2015. But he said the latest displacement was more difficult.
“With the first displacement, we had time to plan things, but this time we were forced to escape all of a sudden. One could hardly take their children and the lightest stuff possible,” he said.