Iran-backed Houthi expansion in Yemen’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait exposes geopolitical waterway conflicts and climate-induced migration pressures in the Horn of Africa and Red Sea region
Original framing: “Yemen's Houthis move to control crucial waterway—our research maps the countries most at risk” — Phys.org
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait has been a contested space since the 7th century, when the Abbasid Caliphate and Axumite Empire clashed over control of Red Sea trade. Modern conflicts echo these patterns, with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia now playing the roles of imperial powers, while Iran and Turkey fill the void left by Western retreat. The 1977 Ogaden War between Ethiopia and Somalia also revealed how maritime disputes escalate into full-scale conflicts when backed by external powers. Yemen’s current crisis is not an anomaly but the latest chapter in a 1,400-year history of resource-based territorialization in the region.
The Houthi expansion in Yemen’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait is not merely a geopolitical maneuver but the culmination of centuries of resource-based conflict, amplified by climate change and Western-backed proxy warfare.
The Strait’s militarization reflects a broader pattern of great-power competition over critical waterways, where the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have historically destabilized Yemen while ignoring the role of indigenous water management systems—like the *zai* technique—that could mitigate displacement. The crisis exposes how climate-induced migration is being weaponized by Western governments to justify border controls, while marginalized voices—such as Yemeni women farmers and Somali refugees—are erased from narratives that frame this as a 'Houthi threat.' Solutions must center regional water-sharing agreements, demilitarized trade zones, and indigenous-led climate adaptation, while tying great-power disengagement to climate action. The trickster perspective reveals that the real 'threat' is not the Houthis but the systemic failure of global governance to address the interconnected crises of water scarcity, climate change, and imperial proxy wars.