Mocha shutdown tests Yemen’s ability to secure Red Sea shipping
ADEN – Houthi attacks on Yemen’s Mocha port last week disrupted its infrastructure and destroyed boats and vessels docked there, Yemen’s Transport Minister Mohsen al-Amri said on Thursday, underscoring the scale of damage inflicted on a key port near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Amri said the attacks, involving ballistic missiles, drones and explosive-laden boats, also set fire to warehouses and administrative and residential facilities at the port, killing and injuring civilians working there, cargo owners and members of ships’ crews.
The attacks marked the first major assault on Mocha since a 2022 truce between Yemen’s government and the Iran-backed Houthi movement, and came amid renewed fighting on several Yemeni fronts and heightened tensions around Red Sea shipping.
The port, in Taiz province in southwestern Yemen, lies close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean.
Amri said Yemen’s location along the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab placed a particular responsibility on the government to protect international shipping and national interests. He warned that the security of the waterway was closely linked to freedom of navigation, protection of maritime communications and efforts to combat maritime crime across the region.
He also said no regional maritime security framework could be fully effective without the “active and organised participation” of Yemen, given its position overlooking the Bab al-Mandab.
The latest attacks have effectively paralysed Mocha, according to Yemeni government officials, with previous Houthi strikes causing estimated losses of about $16 million.
The most serious attack last week killed seven people, including four members of port security and three port employees, and caused extensive damage to port facilities and equipment, according to Mocha port director Abdulmalek al-Sharaabi. The attacks brought maritime and commercial activity at the port to a halt.
The escalation comes as Yemen’s government-aligned forces say they are stepping up military operations against the Houthis in response to attacks on civilian and commercial infrastructure.
Government military spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said on Thursday that government-aligned forces had carried out 81 operations against Houthi positions and fighters across Yemen during the previous 24 hours.
He said the operations had “neutralised” a number of Houthi fighters and field commanders and destroyed military equipment, vehicles and other sources of threat. He described the operations as retaliatory measures following repeated Houthi attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Nuzaili accused the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, of seeking to impose a blockade on government-held areas and halt Yemen’s oil exports, depriving the Aden-based government of revenues used to pay public-sector salaries.
He cited recent Houthi attacks on Mocha port and the Al-Ardi pier in the Bab al-Mandab, as well as attacks on ships carrying food supplies to residential areas and displacement camps in the central-eastern province of Marib.
The military spokesman said the government had issued more than 350 permits since the beginning of 2026 for commercial vessels to enter Houthi-controlled ports, including Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Isa, presenting the measure as evidence that the government was seeking to keep commercial and humanitarian supply routes open despite the conflict.
The escalation around Mocha comes after years in which the port remained outside the main front lines of Yemen’s war.
A truce that took effect in April 2022 sharply reduced fighting between the Houthis and forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government, although it did not produce a comprehensive political settlement. The Houthis continue to control Sanaa and large parts of northern and western Yemen.
In recent weeks, fighting has intensified in several areas, including Marib, Jawf, Dhale and Taiz, raising concerns that the conflict could again develop into a broader confrontation.
The renewed attacks also come against the backdrop of the Houthis’ expanding role in the wider regional conflict since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023. The group has launched missiles towards Israel and attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, saying it was acting in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthis have also announced measures restricting maritime traffic involving Saudi Arabia, while Iran has been accused by Yemen’s government and its allies of providing the group with military and logistical support.
For Yemen, the consequences extend beyond the immediate destruction of port infrastructure. Any sustained disruption around Mocha and the Bab al-Mandab threatens a crucial maritime corridor and could further complicate efforts to restore Yemen’s commercial economy, already battered by years of war.
The government’s response also suggests that the recent attacks are being viewed not simply as isolated strikes but as part of a broader attempt by the Houthis to exert pressure on government-held territory and undermine its economic base.
The latest developments therefore risk pushing Yemen further away from the relative calm that followed the 2022 truce, while tying the country’s internal conflict ever more closely to the wider confrontation involving Iran, Israel and regional shipping routes.
The Saudi-led coalition continues to support Yemen’s government-aligned forces, while the Houthis remain the dominant armed authority across much of the country’s north and west.
With Mocha now largely out of operation and fighting intensifying elsewhere, the latest escalation is putting renewed pressure on Yemen’s fragile truce and highlighting the vulnerability of a country whose strategic coastline places it at the centre of an increasingly contested regional maritime arena.