Yemen: the Houthis come within 50 miles of Aden, their deepest advance since 2015, and the EU condemns the escalation

Yemen’s Houthis have come within 80 kilometres of Aden, the main stronghold and temporary capital of the internationally recognised government. Four military sources told Reuters on Monday, November 2, that this is the closest the Houthis have been to the city since the early months of the war in 2015, when they briefly entered Aden before being driven out.

Fighting on Monday was taking place at a camp at the entrance to the Tur al-Bahah area, one of the main approaches to Aden, about 50 kilometres from Lahij, the capital of the province of the same name. Three days ago the Houthis launched an attack on government positions in the Makatira area and captured all of it, forcing government troops to fall back towards Tur al-Bahah. Houthi official Hamid Rizq posted a video of fighters who, he claimed, were entering Souq al-Rabou in Makatira. Reuters could not immediately verify it.

The Taiz–Aden road and Bab el-Mandeb

The mountainous Makatira area overlooks the road linking Taiz with Aden, the vital artery of south-western Yemen and the last road link of besieged Taiz with government-held areas. Taiz, the country’s third-largest city, has been encircled since early October, when the Houthis cut its main road to the south, and the siege has displaced more than 100,000 people. The military sources say the advance gives the Houthis a chance to outflank government forces on the ridge overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, from which they had been driven out a few weeks earlier. The attack follows the wider operation that began in September, when the Houthis advanced to the Red Sea coast and captured territory along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. For those developments, see our reports on the Taiz siege and the Houthi advance towards Bab el-Mandeb.

Houthi attacks on Aden have intensified in recent weeks. On Wednesday, October 28 they struck the city’s airport, after calling on civilians to move away, while in October the presidential palace was hit as well. The offensive has opened a new, unstable front in the wider US and Israeli war against Iran and draws the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, deeper into the regional conflict. The violence has shattered the 2022 UN-brokered truce.

The EU condemns the escalation

The European Union strongly condemned the Houthi escalation in Yemen and their attacks on Saudi Arabia, in a statement by the office of High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas. “We call on all those involved, Iran included, to stop all military support to the Houthis, in breach of several UN Security Council resolutions,” the statement says. The EU expressed solidarity with the internationally recognised government and with Saudi Arabia, called for an immediate end to the Houthis’ military actions and reiterated that there is no military solution to the conflict. More than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid.