Yemen ground fighting kills dozens

At least 60 people were reported killed in renewed ground fighting in Yemen’s south-west this week, according to medical and military sources cited by Agence France-Presse and reported by The Guardian. The clash came after an earlier day of fighting that AFP tallied at 129 dead, following the collapse in July of the 2022 ceasefire between the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

The immediate battlefield is a strip of territory that matters far beyond Yemen’s front lines. The Guardian reports that the Houthis are trying to capture strategic hills and advance toward port cities overlooking Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow strait at the southern end of the Red Sea that funnels shipping toward the Suez Canal. About 10% of global maritime trade passes through that chokepoint, and the fighting is unfolding as maritime routes elsewhere in the region have become less reliable. With the Strait of Hormuz described in recent weeks as virtually closed, Bab al-Mandeb has become a key outlet for Saudi oil exports and a pressure point for anyone looking to raise costs for rivals without holding major territory.

The Guardian’s account describes the conflict’s familiar pattern: surges of violence, contested claims, and civilians absorbing the most legible losses. A missile strike hit a bus in Taiz, killing civilians and injuring others, while both sides reported troop deaths in hours-long exchanges. Neither the Houthis nor the government announced an official death toll, leaving outside tallies to stitch together numbers from hospitals, commanders and local officials.

The strategic goal is easier to state than to achieve. The Houthis do not control Bab al-Mandeb itself, but they have held the port city of Hodeidah further north and have previously been pushed out of Red Sea ports overlooking the strait. Moving the front line toward the coast would give the group more leverage over shipping and over Saudi Arabia, which the Houthis declared subject to a naval blockade in July, according to The Guardian.

Yemen’s war has run long enough to build its own institutions: armed groups, supply lines, and a humanitarian system that keeps the country from collapsing outright. The Guardian cites UN figures of more than 150,000 killed over the course of the conflict, millions displaced, and large-scale dependence on aid. The new fighting, in other words, is not only a military contest but also a contest over who gets to tax, control, and threaten the region’s remaining functional infrastructure.

On Saturday, The Guardian reported government-aligned forces moving along a road in the Hays district south of Hodeidah. The road leads toward the sea lanes that have become more valuable as other sea lanes close.