Bab el-Mandeb Strait: Where It Is, How Wide It Is and Who Controls It

It joins the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and through it to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Together with the Suez Canal at the Red Sea’s northern end, it forms the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe.

Three countries border it. Yemen holds the eastern shore and Perim, the island in the middle of the strait. Djibouti holds the western shore at the narrowest point, and Eritrea’s coast begins just to the north. The name is Arabic and is usually translated as the Gate of Tears or the Gate of Grief, a reference to how dangerous the passage was for sailors.

About 26 to 32 kilometers (16 to 20 miles) at its narrowest, between Ras Menheli in Yemen and Ras Siyyan in Djibouti; published measurements differ by a few kilometers.

Perim Island, about 13 square kilometers of volcanic rock, splits that gap in two. The eastern channel, between Perim and the Yemeni mainland, is only about 3 kilometers wide and shallow. The western channel, between Perim and Africa, is about 25 kilometers wide and more than 300 meters deep in places, and that is where large ships sail. Even there, traffic is held to two lanes about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) wide, one for ships heading into the Red Sea and one for ships leaving it.

That makes it narrower than the Strait of Hormuz. Hormuz is about 39 kilometers (24 miles) wide at its narrowest; the Bab el-Mandeb is about 26 to 32 kilometers. Our explainer on how wide the Strait of Hormuz is compares the two with Gibraltar.

No single power controls it. The African shore is held by Djibouti, with Eritrea to the north, and has not changed hands. The Yemeni shore is contested between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which Saudi Arabia backs.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the strait is used for international navigation, so ships and aircraft of all nations have a right of transit passage that the coastal states may not suspend. Control of the shore, though, decides who can threaten that passage.

The Yemeni side has changed hands twice this year. The Houthis declared their truce with Saudi Arabia over in July and pushed down Yemen’s Red Sea coast in September. They took Mokha on September 10, and on September 11 they took Perim, which Yemenis call Mayun, together with Zuqar island to the north, after government troops pulled out; officials on both sides confirmed the fall of Perim. On October 5 the government launched its Saudi-backed counteroffensive, and its spokesman, Col. Majed al-Nuzaili, said its forces had secured the Bab el-Mandeb coast and taken Dhubab and its airstrip. Silent Dossier’s reporting at the time described how Saudi Arabia turned the battle and why the decisive fight was Taiz, not the coast.

Here is where things stand as of November 10. Government and southern forces, led by the Giants Brigades, hold the mainland coast facing the strait and the Dhubab airfield. Perim is disputed: on October 10 the Giants Brigades and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al Jaber, said the island had been taken, while government military sources said the same day that it remained in Houthi hands, and no independent confirmation has followed. Mokha remains contested: the government said it retook the port on October 5, and the Houthis denied losing it. The Houthi advance to within 80 kilometers of Aden threatens to cut off the forces on that coast from behind.

Because a large share of the oil and goods moving between Asia, the Gulf and Europe has to pass through it. In 2023, before the Houthi attacks on shipping, about 9 million barrels a day of crude oil and fuels went through the strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, about 12 percent of all oil traded by sea. By the first half of 2025 that had fallen to about 4.2 million barrels a day.

Egypt pays for every ship that turns away. Suez Canal revenue fell from $10.25 billion in 2023 to about $4 billion in 2024 as shipping lines sent their vessels around Africa instead, and the Energy Information Administration estimated in June 2024 that the Cape of Good Hope detour adds about 15 days to a voyage from the Arabian Sea to Europe.

In 2026 the strait matters even more to Saudi Arabia. With the Strait of Hormuz largely shut since the Iran war began, the kingdom sends much of its crude across the desert to Yanbu through the East-West Pipeline, and tankers bound for Asia from Yanbu must still sail south through the Bab el-Mandeb.

No. The strait is open, but far fewer ships use it than before the Houthi campaign. About 74 ships a day passed through in 2023, about 33 a day in 2024 and 2025, and about 26 a day in the first week of November 2026.

The Houthis began attacking merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in November 2023, starting with the seizure of the car carrier Galaxy Leader on November 19 of that year. More than 100 merchant ships were attacked by the end of 2024, and four had been sunk by July 2025. A U.S. air campaign against the group ran from March 15 to May 6, 2025, when Oman announced a ceasefire between Washington and the Houthis that did not cover Israel.

The 2026 war with Saudi Arabia brought a new threat. On July 20 the Houthis declared a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia, meaning ships linked to the kingdom. The Joint Maritime Information Center, the navy-run center that advises merchant ships in the region, said in its November 5 update that the strait was open, reporting one suspicious approach to a ship and no confirmed attack.

Most of them are in Djibouti, on the African shore. The United States runs Camp Lemonnier, its only permanent base in Africa, with roughly 3,000 to 4,000 personnel. China opened its first overseas military base there on August 1, 2017, a few miles away. France and Japan also keep forces in Djibouti.

On the Yemeni side, a runway of about 1.85 kilometers was built on Perim by May 2021; Yemeni officials attributed the work to the United Arab Emirates. That airstrip is one reason the island matters to whoever holds the shore.

The Bab el-Mandeb is about 26 to 32 kilometers wide at its narrowest, between Ras Menheli in Yemen and Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. Perim Island divides it into a narrow eastern channel and a western channel about 25 kilometers wide. In 2023 about 9 million barrels of oil a day passed through it, about 12 percent of seaborne oil trade. Daily transits fell from about 74 in 2023 to about 26 in the first week of November 2026. The Houthis seized Perim on September 11, 2026, and its control has been disputed since the government’s October 5 counteroffensive. Suez Canal revenue fell from $10.25 billion in 2023 to about $4 billion in 2024. The strait is open to shipping as of November 10, 2026.