The Houthis Red Sea capture hands the EU a major trade and security headache
Seemingly a second-tier problem from a civil war in a distant land, the Houthis' capture of Yemen's Red Sea coast actually risks major disruption to trade and the EU's security missions on the Horn of Africa.
The seizure of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline by the Houthi rebel group poses yet another headache to EU leaders.
Largely ignored by the international community over the past couple of years because of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, this latest act in Yemen’s civil war means that Houthi forces now have control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait , vital for Red Sea maritime traffic.
Though not as important to world trade as the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb handles roughly 12 percent of global trade and is tighter than the Strait of Hormuz, which has been disrupted by the US/Israel war against Iran.
In a letter to EU foreign and defence ministers on Saturday (19 September), EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas warned that as well as posing “a serious threat to maritime security,” the armed group’s control of the route “is already affecting European interests, with repercussions for our supply chains and could have implications for our ability to sustain our economies, which are already being hit by rising fuel prices.”
Aside from the potential disruption to trade, the Houthis advances risk causing more diplomatic difficulties for the EU around the Horn of Africa.
Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.
