Why is Yemen important in the Iran war?: Yemen's Ansar Allah movement fired Ballistic Missiles at Israel on 28 March 2026, raising the prospect of Bab al-Mandeb being closed simultaneously with Iran's Hormuz blockade. Yemen also hosts Mukalla port, where Saudi Arabia struck a UAE convoy in December 2025.Source: editorial
Where is Yemen?: The southernmost country on the Arabian Peninsula, bordered by Saudi Arabia and Oman. Its western coast faces the Red Sea; the Bab al-Mandeb strait separates it from Djibouti and the Horn of Africa.
Is Yemen still at war in 2026?: Yes. Despite a Ceasefire since 2022, Ansar Allah (the Houthis) continued Red Sea attacks and re-entered the 2026 Iran-Israel conflict on 28 March. Saudi Arabia struck a UAE convoy in Yemeni territory in December 2025, demonstrating ongoing proxy competition.Source: editorial
How many people died in the Yemen war?: The UN estimated over 377,000 deaths by end of 2021, the majority from indirect causes — famine, disease, and collapsed healthcare. Casualties continued after the 2022 Ceasefire at a lower level.Source: UN OCHA
Bab al-Mandeb vs Strait of Hormuz?: Both are critical oil chokepoints. Hormuz (controlled by Iran) handles 21% of global oil. Bab al-Mandeb (threatened by Yemen's Ansar Allah) handles 10% of global trade. In March 2026, both are under simultaneous threat for the first time.
What happened at Mukalla port in December 2025?: On 29 December 2025 Saudi Arabia struck a UAE weapons convoy at Mukalla port in Yemen's Hadhramaut Governorate, the first kinetic exchange between Gulf Cooperation Council member states in the bloc's history. The incident is cited as the structural backstory to the UAE's OPEC exit in May 2026.Source: editorial
What is Bab al-Mandeb and why does Yemen control it?: Bab al-Mandeb is the strait between Yemen and Djibouti connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 10% of global trade and 4.5 million barrels of oil pass through daily. Yemen controls the eastern shore; Ansar Allah's missile and drone attacks there halved traffic between 2023 and 2025.Source: editorial

Background

The poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been divided since Ansar Allah (the Houthis) seized Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi Arabia-led Coalition intervened in 2015; the resulting war killed hundreds of thousands and produced the world's worst humanitarian crisis. A fragile Ceasefire from 2022 allowed Ansar Allah to consolidate power and significantly upgrade its missile and drone arsenal with Iranian assistance. OCHA scaled contingency operations across Yemen alongside Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria from the outset of the 2026 conflict .

Yemen returned to the centre of the 2026 Iran conflict when Ansar Allah fired Ballistic Missiles at Israel on 28 March, ending a month of restraint that had surprised analysts . The movement's entry raised the prospect of a simultaneous blockade at Bab al-Mandeb, compounding Iran's Strait of Hormuz closure and threatening two of the world's three critical oil chokepoints. The structural backstory behind the UAE's formal OPEC exit on 1 May 2026 reached back to Yemen: on 29 December 2025, Saudi Arabia struck a UAE weapons convoy at Mukalla port in the Hadhramaut Governorate, the first kinetic exchange between nominal GCC allies in the bloc's history .

Yemen's strategic value lies in its geography: it controls the eastern shore of Bab al-Mandeb, through which 10% of global trade and 4.5 million barrels of oil pass daily. Between 2023 and 2025, Ansar Allah's Red Sea shipping attacks halved traffic through the strait and triggered the largest naval escort operation since the Cold War. The Mukalla incident demonstrates that Yemeni territory remains a live site of great-power and Gulf-state proxy competition, not simply a Houthi-Saudi bilateral.

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