Yemen government forces leave Bab al-Mandab coast as Houthis advance
The internationally recognised government is fortifying Aden, its temporary capital, while the presidency calls the coastal redeployment a calculated military move.
Yemen's internationally recognised government has lost the Red Sea coast at the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and is strengthening defences around Aden, the city it uses as its temporary capital.
Reuters reported that a government force had retreated from the strait and called it a major setback in the war against the Houthis. Military officials told Agence France-Presse, in a report carried by Dawn, that the government lost the coastline along the strait in September, that Houthi fighters have since seized hilltops overlooking it and that they are advancing east towards the Gulf of Aden.
The Yemeni presidency rejects the word retreat. A source in the presidency told Asharq Al-Awsat, which Arab News reported, that the redeployment of the Southern Armed Forces around Bab al-Mandab and Dhubab was a "calculated military move". Jaber Mohammed, a media adviser to the presidency, said it was not a withdrawal in the military sense but a redistribution of troops meant to protect Aden, reinforce the fronts in Lahj and create conditions to break the siege of Taiz.
Jaber Mohammed said that since Operation Fajr Yemen began on 5 October, Southern Forces had advanced towards Dhubab airport and parts of Bab al-Mandab and Kahbub, and that they had now moved to Al-Suqyah, six to eight kilometres from the strait. He said the Kahbub mountains were still held by forces loyal to the government. A Southern military commander warned that losing the high ground above the coast could open a route towards Lahj and then Aden.
The Southern Armed Forces said in a statement that the move followed changing battlefield priorities and did not mean abandoning the fight against the Houthis or the effort to lift the siege of Taiz. Col. Majed Abdullah Al-Nazili, a spokesman for the armed forces, said retaking Bab al-Mandab and the western coast was a right of the armed forces, and urged the international community to help, citing the strait's importance to maritime trade.
Anadolu Agency reported that government forces said a senior commander was killed in clashes with the Houthis in Al-Jawf province, and that local media reported six civilians wounded in Houthi attacks in Taiz province.
Fighting has flared since a 2022 truce collapsed over the summer, according to the military officials who spoke to AFP.
How the reports differ
Reuters framed the day's news as a retreat from the strait and a major setback in the war, while Arab News, working from a source in the Yemeni presidency and a statement by the Southern Armed Forces, reported a deliberate redeployment with three stated objectives and quoted an adviser insisting it was not a withdrawal in the military sense. Dawn, drawing on AFP, led with the government fortifying Aden and dated the loss of the Red Sea coastline to September, a timeline Reuters did not give. Anadolu Agency alone carried casualty reports from other fronts, naming a senior commander killed in Al-Jawf and six civilians wounded in Taiz, neither of which appears in the other three reports. Arab News was also the only outlet to name the individual officials, Jaber Mohammed and Col. Majed Abdullah Al-Nazili.
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