Yemen is at risk of spiraling back into all-out war as Houthi forces and Saudi Arabia exchange new strikes amid a fight over control of the key Bab el-Mandeb strait through which much of Saudi oil passes on its way to world markets. The Houthis, the Iran-allied force also known as Ansarallah, has seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The United Nations says the latest escalation has displaced 86,000 people in Yemen as the U.S. war on Iran continues to wrack the Middle East and raise oil prices around the world.
“What’s happening right now is essentially a break in the ceasefire between Ansarallah … and Saudi Arabia,” says Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni American associate professor at Michigan State University. “This ceasefire has been in place since 2022, but it has not ended the war in Yemen.”
