Significant developments have unfolded in the Houthi push to seize control of Yemen’s entire coastline and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (the “Gate of Tears”), as the Iran-backed rebels captured the port city of Mocha (also known as Mukha) on Thursday (10/9). Located less than 80 kilometers from this critical global shipping corridor, the city’s fall marks a dramatic turning point in the conflict.
According to reports circulating in international media, the fighting has already displaced 20,000 people over the past two weeks alone. The offensive represents the culmination of a rebel strategy aimed at cutting off forces loyal to Tariq Saleh — nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed by the Houthis after initially allying with them — and the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia. After fierce fighting in the city’s outskirts, “National Resistance” forces aligned with the government were forced to withdraw from Mocha. The advance was preceded by nine days of intense clashes in the city of Taiz, with the Houthis pushing westward across approximately 2,600 square kilometers of Yemeni territory in a rapid offensive.
Mocha’s strategic importance lies in its role as a critical supply hub for government forces. Yemeni and Saudi officials warn that further Houthi advances could sever key supply lines to southern government-held territory.
BIG: Yemen’s Houthis have captured Mokha and swept roughly 2,600 km² of western Yemen in a rapid coastal offensive.
The advance targeted the western Taiz and southern Al-Hudaydah governorates, cutting through multiple districts in what’s being described as one of the fastest… pic.twitter.com/FQ95qqEjkI
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 10, 2026
What is happening in Yemen right now
The Houthis currently control the northwest of the country, including the capital Sanaa, while forces aligned with the internationally recognized government hold the remaining territory. The Al Jazeera map below illustrates the situation clearly: brown areas indicate Houthi-controlled zones, green marks government coalition territory, and red highlights active conflict zones.
Tariq Saleh, Vice President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, acknowledged losses among government forces following successive Houthi attacks and announced the establishment of an alternative command center in a more secure area to allow for the reorganization of his forces.
It is worth recalling that the renewed fighting in Yemen erupted after the ceasefire collapsed in July, when Saudi-led coalition aircraft bombed Sanaa’s international airport in an attempt to prevent the landing of a plane carrying a Houthi delegation from Iran. The Houthis responded by announcing a blockade of Saudi ports and launching a fresh series of attacks on shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
These developments have thrust the strategic importance of the strait back into the global spotlight. Connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Aden), Bab el-Mandeb spans approximately 26 kilometers at its narrowest point, from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyan in Djibouti. It stands as one of the world’s most vital maritime trade arteries — and its significance has only grown against the backdrop of the war in Iran and the effective “paralysis” of the Strait of Hormuz. Until three years ago (before the dynamics shifted following Israel’s war in Gaza and Houthi involvement in the conflict), 12% of global trade passed through Bab el-Mandeb. It remains one of three critical chokepoints for the transit of oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf to Europe and the rest of the world via the Red Sea, alongside the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline — which runs to the Mediterranean through Egypt and on which Saudi Arabia increasingly relies for oil exports in the wake of wider Middle East developments. According to available data, up to the first half of 2023, some 8.8 million barrels of oil and 4.1 billion cubic feet of LNG passed through Bab el-Mandeb every single day.
The historical significance of Mocha — and the coffee that bears its name
Long before it became the focal point of a geopolitical crisis, Mocha was the most important trading center on the Arabian Peninsula and the birthplace of the global coffee trade. Mocha coffee, of course, takes its name from this very city. Mocha came under Ottoman control in the mid-16th century, and the first Westerners to taste the “dark beverage that invigorates the body and calms the mind” — as the local ruler reportedly described it — were the Portuguese. The Ottomans began the first export operations through the port in 1536, shipping coffee beans across the Red Sea to Suez and Alexandria, where they were sold to European merchants. The Dutch concluded the first commercial coffee agreement in 1628, and eventually managed to smuggle live coffee seeds out of the region to cultivate them in Java (Indonesia) and the Americas — effectively making coffee a global commodity.
Mocha began to decline in the 19th century — after prospering throughout the 17th and 18th centuries — due to the rise of the competing ports of Aden and Hodeidah.
