1. What the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is, in one paragraph
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is the choke point between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with Yemen on the Arabian side and Djibouti and Eritrea on the Horn of Africa side, and it is the sea gate every ship using the Suez Canal on an Asia to Europe route must pass through. The Yemeni island of Mayyun, also called Perim, sits in the middle of the strait and splits it into two channels: Bab Iskender, about 5.4 kilometers wide, and the wider Dact-el-Mayun, about 20.3 kilometers wide.
At its narrowest point the strait is described as about 20 kilometers wide by dpa on 11 September 2026, while reference works puts it at 26 kilometers; both figures are given here because they do not agree. For the parallel chokepoint on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, see our Strait of Hormuz glossary entry.
2. How much oil moves through it, and how it compares to Hormuz
Bab el-Mandeb carried about 4.2 million barrels a day of crude oil and oil products in the first half of 2025, against about 20.9 million barrels a day through the Strait of Hormuz in the same period, roughly five times as much. Both figures come from the EIA's World Oil Transit Chokepoints page, last updated 3 March 2026. The volume has moved over time: EIA's Today in Energy put it at about 6.2 million barrels a day in 2018 and about 5.1 million in 2014, with the strait carrying about 9 percent of world seaborne oil trade in 2017 (EIA, 27 August 2019).
The strait also carried LNG at a 2016 peak of 1.4 billion cubic feet a day, 80 percent of it headed to Jordan and Egypt (EIA, 27 August 2019); no 2026 LNG figure was available. The table below sets the two chokepoints side by side.
| Chokepoint | Volume | Period / as of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bab el-Mandeb | about 4.2 million b/d | H1 2025 | EIA World Oil Transit Chokepoints, page state 3 March 2026 |
| Strait of Hormuz | about 20.9 million b/d | H1 2025 | EIA World Oil Transit Chokepoints, page state 3 March 2026 |
| Bab el-Mandeb | about 9.3 million b/d | 2023 | EIA, cited on the same page |
| Bab el-Mandeb | about 6.2 million b/d | 2018 | EIA Today in Energy, 27 August 2019 |
Because Bab el-Mandeb carries a smaller absolute volume than Hormuz, a disruption there hits global crude supply less directly than a Hormuz disruption would; our oil shock glossary entry covers how a supply shock at a chokepoint transmits into prices.
3. Why Bab el-Mandeb matters differently for Europe than Hormuz does
Bab el-Mandeb sits on the direct sea route between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal, so its disruption reroutes container and product cargo, not primarily crude supply, which is why the effect on Europe looks different from a Hormuz disruption. Egypt's Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie reported 1,315 ship transits from the start of 2026 through 9 February 2026, earning 449 million US dollars, against 1,243 transits and 368 million a year earlier (Egypt Today, 9 February 2026). Container capacity offered through the canal fell to about 292,000 TEU a month in 2025, down from about 4.1 million TEU a month in 2023 (Xeneta, 21 January 2026).
Diesel is a specific channel into European prices: Indian refiners supplied about 60 percent of the diesel moving through Bab el-Mandeb toward Europe in August 2026, roughly 200,000 barrels a day, while Russian seaborne diesel exports over the first 25 days of August 2026 ran about 150,000 barrels a day, well below prior levels (Business Today, India, 6 September 2026). Our diesel crack spread glossary entry covers how that tightness turns into refining margin.
4. How traffic through the Red Sea has fallen since 2023
Red Sea shipping traffic has run about 60 percent below its level before the attacks that began in late 2023, and Saudi crude exports routed via the Red Sea fell from 3.8 to 2.2 million barrels a day, according to Reuters and AP reporting carried by Voice of Emirates on 12 September 2026. Global Maritime Hub reported 150 container ship transits through the Suez Canal in January 2026, 16.7 percent fewer than the same month a year earlier.
Rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope adds more than 3,000 nautical miles and about 10 days to an Asia to Europe voyage, per ING Research as cited by the South China Morning Post; an India to Europe round trip stretches from 56 to 63 days, needing an extra ship per rotation, with emissions per Singapore to Northern Europe round trip more than 70 percent higher (UNCTAD, 2024). US MARAD's advisory 2026-006, valid 26 March to 22 September 2026, records more than 100 Houthi attacks between November 2023 and October 2025, none since, and labels the area high risk without declaring the strait closed.
5. Who controls the shores and islands, as of 11 and 12 September 2026
As of 11 and 12 September 2026, Houthi forces control both the Yemeni island of Mayyun and the Hanish islands in the southern Red Sea, along with the entire Yemeni Red Sea coast, six districts in all, after the port city of Mokha fell on Thursday, 10 September 2026. That is the reporting from Al Jazeera on both dates; the United Nations, cited by dpa on 11 September 2026, put the number displaced by the offensive at more than 46,000 people. The other shore, Djibouti and Eritrea, is not part of this territorial change.
dpa reporting on 11 September 2026 states the strait remains passable, while noting Houthi forces can now target or disrupt shipping more precisely from their new positions. Analyst Wolfgang Pusztai, quoted by Al Jazeera on 12 September 2026, said the Houthis have "the real capability to shut down any maritime traffic through Bab al-Mandeb if they want to," a capability assessment, not a report that they have done so. A Houthi political bureau statement the same day said navigation and trade in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb "are safe and orderly." Both statements are reported positions here, not verified outcomes.
6. What "closed" does and does not mean here
No authority, neither UKMTO, the IMO, US MARAD, the Saudi government, nor the internationally recognized Yemeni government, has declared Bab el-Mandeb formally closed; what is documented is that both shores and the islands are under Houthi control and traffic is sharply reduced. The one declared restriction on record is narrower: Houthi forces announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on 20 July 2026, and reporting on 24 July 2026 described the strait as closed specifically to Saudi-flagged vessels, not to shipping in general.
For a household, the practical channel from this strait to a heating bill runs through diesel and crude prices, not the strait's own headline status; our pass-through effect glossary entry explains how a wholesale change reaches a retail tank or pump, and governments hold reserves partly for disruptions like this one, as our strategic petroleum reserve glossary entry covers. For the fuller, dated chronology of the Red Sea crisis, see our Red Sea crisis and fuel prices status page; this glossary entry explains the strait itself and does not repeat that chronology or carry a forecast.
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