A Yemeni minister has warned that the country’s Houthi rebels are plotting to seize land along the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which would allow the group to further threaten the vital shipping artery, AFP reports.
A spokesman for Yemeni government forces bordering the waterway has also told AFP the rebels are planning to advance.
“The Houthi militia … is working to create the conditions for seizing control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait by expanding its presence along the western coast and attempting to control strategic Yemeni islands in the Red Sea,” Yemen’s information minister Moammar al-Eryani tells AFP.
He says there had been a military build-up by the Houthis and that their plans had been illustrated by “repeated targeting of ports, docks, civilian infrastructure, ships, and government naval capabilities”.
Major-General Sadeq Duwaid, a spokesman for the government-affiliated National Resistance Forces that control areas bordering the strait, tells AFP that the rebels “are striving to secure a foothold in Bab al-Mandeb”.
“Through their continued attacks on Mokha and its port, the Houthi militia seeks to establish a presence along the shores of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and transform the area into a situation resembling that of the Strait of Hormuz,” he warns.
