Yemen tightens grip on ports, crossings to disrupt Houthi supply lines
ADEN, Yemen – Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi has ordered the closure of any port or border crossing operating outside the country’s legal framework, in a move aimed at disrupting smuggling networks and cutting off sources of funding and weapons for the Iran-aligned Houthis.
Alimi issued the order on Wednesday while chairing a meeting of the Supreme Committee for Combating Smuggling, headed by Prime Minister Shaia al-Zindani, in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Yemen’s official Saba news agency reported.
The measures are part of a broader government campaign to tighten control over Yemen’s sovereign entry points, protect legitimate trade and undermine what Alimi described as the country’s “war economy” and the networks that sustain the Houthis militarily and financially.
“The era of leniency toward smuggling is over,” Alimi said, warning that the state would take the necessary measures to protect legitimate commerce and the private sector and would deal firmly with smuggling networks that drain state resources, finance its adversaries or threaten national security.
The directive comes as Yemen’s internationally-recognised government seeks to weaken the Houthis’ military and economic capabilities and prevent the flow of supplies that could allow the group to sustain an escalation on several fronts.
Control of supply routes has become an increasingly important part of the government’s strategy, particularly as it seeks to strengthen surveillance of Yemen’s land and maritime borders and prevent the movement of weapons and military components allegedly supplied by Iran.
The government has focused in particular on materials used in the manufacture and development of missiles and drones, which have become central to the Houthis’ military capabilities and their wider regional operations.
“The state, which is fighting a decisive battle to restore its national institutions, can no longer allow smuggling networks to operate through its territory and sovereign ports or provide them with any form of cover,” Alimi said.
He ordered that the Presidential Leadership Council’s decisions be implemented without exception, saying any port or crossing operating outside the legal framework must be shut down and immediately brought under the country’s existing laws and regulations.
Alimi also ordered a comprehensive reassessment of ports and crossings where irregularities had been recorded in recent months.
The review will cover their management as well as the government and security agencies operating at the sites. He called for the rotation of personnel and the replacement of officials whose performance was deemed inadequate or who were found to have failed in their duties.
“There will be no administrative or political immunity for anyone proven to be involved in smuggling, protecting smugglers, facilitating the passage of shipments or obstructing government decisions on this issue,” he said.
The government is seeking tighter oversight of land, sea and air entry points at a time when United Nations experts have documented the seizure of weapons shipments and components for missiles and drones that they said were destined for the Houthis.
The issue has become particularly sensitive given Yemen’s strategic location along the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s key maritime passages.
On July 14, government-aligned Giants Brigades forces said they had intercepted a boat in the Bab al-Mandab carrying materials and equipment used in weapons manufacturing and bound for Hodeidah province, which is controlled by the Houthis. The group did not comment on the report.
Hodeidah and its ports have long been strategically important in Yemen’s conflict because of their location on the Red Sea and their role in the movement of commercial and other goods into Houthi-controlled territory.
The government has repeatedly sought to strengthen monitoring of maritime routes to prevent the movement of military equipment while maintaining the flow of legitimate commercial imports on which Yemen’s population depends.
The crackdown also comes against a backdrop of renewed fighting.
Yemen had enjoyed a period of relative calm since 2022 after years of war between government forces and the Houthis, who seized Sanaa and large parts of the country’s north and west in 2014. But clashes have resumed in several areas, including Marib, al-Jawf, al-Dhale and Taiz.
The renewed fighting has increased pressure on the government to prevent the Houthis from replenishing their military capabilities while also addressing the economic networks that help sustain the group.
The Saudi-led coalition supports Yemen’s Aden-based government and allied forces, while Iran has been accused of providing support to the Houthis, allegations Tehran and the group have disputed in various contexts.
The Houthis have also increasingly projected their military capabilities beyond Yemen’s domestic conflict. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in late 2023, the group has launched attacks against Israel and shipping it considers linked to Israel in the Red Sea, drawing Yemen’s conflict into a broader regional confrontation.
The government therefore sees control of ports and crossings as both an economic and security priority.
For Alimi’s administration, the objective is not simply to seize individual shipments but to dismantle the networks that allow illicit goods and money to move through territory and institutions nominally under government control.
His latest instructions consequently place responsibility not only on smugglers but also on officials and security personnel accused of facilitating their activities.
The government controls much of southern and eastern Yemen, while the Houthis hold Sana’a and most of the north and west, including Hodeidah and its Red Sea ports.
That division means that closing illegal crossings under government authority may disrupt some networks, but it will not by itself eliminate the wider supply routes feeding Houthi-held territory.