Fighting in southern Yemen is threatening a waterway that is crucial to global oil exports, with around 500 Houthi fighters said to be holding high ground overlooking Bab al-Mandab, the strait linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The BBC’s Orla Guerin travelled with Yemen’s pro-government southern national security forces through desert battlefield terrain in Lahj governorate, in a pick-up truck carrying armed fighters in the back, catching glimpses of the Arabian Sea and forbidding mountain peaks in the distance.
Houthi rebels had been dislodged from the Shaab-al-Jinn area only days earlier, according to what the soldiers told the BBC, and the troops showed newly built sandbagged defences — described as new lines in the sand.
“There was heavy fighting,” said Tawfiq Al Haboun, a bearded commander in camouflage uniform.
The commander pointed to shards of fibre glass and pieces of metal at his feet, which he said came from a downed Houthi drone carrying C4 explosives.
A war with wider consequences
Yemen’s entrenched civil war cannot be separated from a wider confrontation stretching from Tehran to Riyadh, where missiles struck the international airport over the weekend.
The Houthis are already seen as a threat to global shipping and are an increasing threat to Saudi Arabia, while also providing leverage for their backers in Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
Commander Al Haboun belongs to the Southern Forces, part of the very loose alliance of groups fighting on behalf of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and its air strikes.
The Houthis entered the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and ousted the government. A Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened a year later to try to dislodge them, and despite years of devastating air strikes, that effort has not succeeded.
The commander said around 500 Houthi fighters remain on high ground overlooking the strategically important maritime corridor. The narrow waterway was just out of sight during the BBC’s trip.
Houthi forces seized the area after a lightning advance in September. The commander claims pro-government forces have taken back about 85% of it. The Houthis have denied losing territory in other areas, though not here, as far as local sources know.
Until complete control is regained, there will be pressure on global oil supplies and on prices.
The BBC later learned there had been heavy clashes on the day of the visit, with five military vehicles apparently struck by improvised explosive devices planted by the Houthis. It is unclear how many fighters were killed or injured.
Hundreds of thousands displaced
Around 200,000 people have been driven from their homes since the current escalation began at the start of September, according to the International Organization for Migration — in the Arab world’s poorest country.
As the BBC team left the area, it saw families scattered across the landscape seeking shelter under scrawny trees. Among one group of women and children was Aisha, described as gaunt and elderly, sitting on the ground.
She had fled in fear from her home in the Kahboob mountains, an area that has been hit by Houthi drone strikes.
“We have been here for 30 days,” she said. “I have no animals, no money, no water, no food, not even a blanket… we had to run, with just the clothes on our backs.”
Over the weekend it was Saudi civilians at Riyadh’s international airport who were forced to run. The Houthi attack was the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, sending shockwaves around the region and puncturing the kingdom’s sense of security.
Overstretched hospitals in Aden
In operating rooms in Yemen’s port city of Aden, geopolitics feels remote. Hospitals are overstretched and doctors work night and day to treat wounded government fighters arriving from the front lines. The southern city has been the seat of the internationally backed government since 2015.
At one military hospital, 51 casualties arrived in a single day, many with gunshot wounds and several requiring amputations.
In a crowded ward, a Houthi fighter lay alongside fighters from the opposing side. Doctors said they make no distinctions between them.
“I don’t care where he comes from, his background or his religion. He is a human being so I should treat him as a human being,” said Dr Bassam Hazar.
Some who survive will never leave the war behind. One man sat silently on his bed, a white bandage wrapped around the stump of his left arm and staples running along his crown.
Others have not lost their fighting spirit. Ahmed Ali Mahmoud was smiling and animated despite multiple fractures.
“I am not waiting to be fully recovered,” he said. “I just want to be able to stand. I think it is a religious duty and a national duty [to go back to fight]. The Houthis have destroyed the country. With victory I won’t even feel these fractures.”
In the next ward lay 12-year-old Ali, a brown-haired boy just one year older than Yemen’s civil war. He was injured by a drone as he walked down the street and faces complicated surgery.
“There is shrapnel near his spine,” said Dr Amr Reyadh Assaqaf, standing by his bedside. “The operation won’t be easy, but God willing our staff will be able to handle it.”
“At first he was depressed,” the doctor said, “but we gave him toys to play with and his mood is gradually lifting.”
A stronger enemy
A truce in 2022 brought a few years of relative calm, but the Houthis are now a stronger enemy, as they demonstrated at the weekend. They already control most of Yemen’s population. If there is a new attempt at mediation — and there has been some speculation about this — they may drive a hard bargain.
Back at the hospital, as he prepared for the next wave of casualties, Dr Bassam Hazar said he hoped for change but did not expect it soon.
“Maybe war is good for news,” he said, “but it’s horrible [for people]. Sons are losing their fathers, and mothers losing their sons. We need peace.”
Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Rawa Gorgorh, Lee Durant and Suaad Al Salahi.
Correction 12 October: The BBC initially reported that Aisha had said she was scared of Saudi air strikes. This was down to a translation error. In fact it was Houthi drone strikes that had been hitting her area.
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