Houthis Seize Perim Island as Red Sea Shipping Risk Rises

Yemeni officials told international newsrooms on Friday, September 11, 2026, that Iran-backed Houthi forces seized Perim Island, also called Mayyun, after government troops withdrew a day earlier. The volcanic island sits in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern gate between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Al Jazeera, citing AFP and Reuters, reported that boats carried fighters onto the island that splits the strait into two shipping lanes.

The seizure does not, by itself, prove that the waterway is closed. It does place Houthi forces on the island that monitors traffic heading toward the Suez Canal. Travelers with Red Sea port calls, Suez-positioning cruises, or Asia-to-Europe itineraries should reconfirm routing before they pay change fees. Deep Arrival covered the Houthis’ July maritime embargo on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea; Friday’s island capture is a new territorial step in the same corridor, not a rewrite of that earlier order.

Perim Island Now Sits at the Strait’s Narrowest Reach

Perim covers about 13 square kilometers and lies between Yemen’s mainland and Djibouti, according to The National, which quoted two Yemeni security officials. The island divides Bab el-Mandeb into two channels. Whoever holds it can watch vessels entering or leaving the Red Sea on the approach to the Suez Canal.

AFP, relayed by Türkiye Today, described the strait as about 100 kilometers long and about 30 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, separating Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea. Even before the current Middle East war, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said 12 percent of world oil shipments transited the strait in 2023. That figure is a cargo fact, not a passenger count, but it is why insurers, cruise schedulers, and airlines watch this waterway.

A local official with Yemen’s internationally recognized government told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that boats carrying armed Houthi fighters reached Mayyun after government forces withdrew on Thursday. An eyewitness told AFP that gunmen were deploying along the Bab el-Mandeb shore in military vehicles. Those are the load-bearing claims for the island itself.

What Changed Along Yemen’s Red Sea Coast

The island seizure followed a coastal advance. Al Jazeera’s Maha Ali, reporting from Taiz, said Houthi fighters reached the port city of Mocha at dawn on Thursday, then moved offshore toward nearby islands. Yemeni government sources told Reuters that fighters reached Dhubab, the coastal town that sits directly on the strait across from Perim.

AFP said the group then took Murad, described as the last coastal town remaining in government hands, and pushed toward Zuqar Island, where clashes were still ongoing at the time of that report. The National’s sources said Houthis had also taken Zuqar. Those accounts are not identical, so Zuqar should be treated as contested or recently entered, not as a fully settled capture, until an on-the-record military update closes the gap.

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on X that the operation expelled Saudi-backed forces from six districts covering 5,400 square kilometers and struck multiple brigades, with hundreds killed, captured, or wounded, Al Jazeera reported. The Sanaa-based Yemen Press Agency, cited by Al Jazeera, said Houthi forces seized the al-Omari camp overlooking the strait. Al Jazeera correspondent Nabil al-Yousefi, reporting from Sanaa, noted there had been no official Houthi government announcement confirming control over Bab el-Mandeb as a whole.

Suez Traffic Was Already Cut in Half

Friday’s territorial shift lands on a corridor that was already running thin. IMF PortWatch data analyzed by AFP show Suez Canal transits fell from 26,895 vessels in 2023, or 73.7 a day, to 14,498 in 2024 and 14,070 in 2025. Average transits for January to August 2026 stood at 40.8 vessels a day, still little more than half the pre-crisis level.

Kpler estimates cited by AFP put Saudi crude shipments from Yanbu at about 3.8 million barrels a day from March to July, then 1.5 million in August after the July attacks on Saudi shipping. Preliminary Kpler data put 2.44 million barrels a day in the first nine days of September, a figure AFP flagged as subject to revision.

Andreas Krieg of King’s College London told AFP that the biggest danger is persistent uncertainty, not a locked gate. Itineraries that still use this lane can change with little notice.

Cruise and Flight Plans After Friday’s Advance

Most large cruise lines already kept passenger ships out of the southern Red Sea after earlier Houthi attacks. Friday’s island capture does not, on the available record, come with a new named cruise cancellation. It does raise the cost of assuming a Suez-transit repositioning or a Red Sea port call will hold without a fresh operator notice.

If your ticket still lists a Suez Canal transit or a Red Sea call, ask the line whether Friday’s Perim Island reports changed the published route before the next payment window. Compare any extra sea days against the ticket’s change rules.

Yemen remains a no-go for ordinary visitors. Djibouti, Eritrea, and Saudi Red Sea airports are not the island, but they sit on the same map. Reconfirm those tickets. Al Jazeera reported Friday that U.S. diesel averaged more than $6 a gallon and that oil was set to close above $100 a barrel.

Officials and Houthi Voices Split on Immediate Risk

A Houthi politburo member, Hazem al-Assad, told Al-Araby al-Jadeed that international shipping faces no danger from the Yemeni side and that navigation in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb is “safe and orderly,” Al Jazeera reported. That is a Houthi claim, not an independent safety finding. It sits beside Yemeni officials who say the group now holds the island in the middle of the strait.

Do not read that reassurance as a green light for a Yemen trip or a last-minute Red Sea cruise. Do not read the island capture as proof that every ship has stopped. The group that already showed it can impose risk on this lane now sits on the island that splits the lane.