Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have swept down Yemen's western coast, seizing the port city of Mocha and the town of Dhubab in a push to control the Bab al-Mandab Strait — a narrow waterway between Yemen and Djibouti through which roughly 15% of global seaborne trade, worth over $1 trillion annually, passes between Asia and Europe. The offensive has displaced more than 130,000 people since early September, and has driven daily vessel transits through the strait from around 70 before 2023 to just 22 as of late September, as shipping companies weigh rerouting around southern Africa. Researchers estimate that a 30-day Houthi blockade of the strait could inflict $30 billion in global economic losses, with East African nations such as Eritrea and Djibouti most exposed, while China, India, the US, Germany, and the UK each stand to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in disrupted maritime trade.