Houthi Fighters Seize Yemen's Mocha Port, Reviving Fears of a Global Oil "Double Chokepoint"

The navigation bridge of a sunken vessel is all that is seen at the surface of the water in the Port of Mokha the day after an attack by the Houthis on the city Mokha, held by Yemen's internationally recognised, Aden-based government on August 10, 2026. (Credit: Photo by Khaled ZIAD / AFP via Getty Images)

Yemen's long civil war delivered its sharpest jolt to global energy markets in weeks on Thursday, when Iran-aligned fighters overran the coffee-trading city of Mocha on the Red Sea, a takeover confirmed by multiple military officials loyal to Yemen's government. Losing the port strips the internationally backed government of its last fully held harbor on the country's western coast and pushes the rebels to within about 43 miles of one of the planet's busiest maritime corridors, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

A City Abandoned Before It Fell