Forces backed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen said on Sunday that they were withdrawing from the country’s Red Sea coast, where they have been fighting for weeks to retake strategic territory from the Iran-aligned Houthi militia.
A group of fighters called the Southern Armed Forces, who are allied with the government of Yemen, said in a statement that they were “redeploying” to protect the interim capital, Aden, citing recent battlefield developments and “threats targeting” the city.
Aden has been the seat of the internationally recognized government for more than a decade, since the Houthis seized control of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
The retreat is a blow for the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia as the balance of power in Yemen continues to tilt toward the Houthis, analysts said.
“The Houthis are very determined to go to Aden,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group. “They don’t want to see any area controlled by the government or the Saudi side, so they want to take over everything at this moment.”
The move was a public acknowledgment that, after more than a month of fighting, the Yemeni government and its Saudi allies have failed to regain control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical waterway for global shipping at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The Houthis seized land beside the strait in a lightning advance in September, allowing Iran and its allies to menace shipping passing through maritime choke points on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Southern Armed Forces said that their redeployment would also allow them to focus on breaking a Houthi siege of Taiz, a major Yemeni city that has been surrounded by the militia for more than a month, restricting vital supplies of food, fuel and water.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis swept into Sanaa and routed the government. The following year, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched a disastrous military intervention to try to restore the government. Their bombing campaign helped plunge Yemen into a brutal conflict that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from violence, hunger and disease.
A truce in 2022 halted the fighting, but the two sides never reached a sustainable peace deal. The Houthis were left in control of much of northern Yemen, where they have set up a de facto administration.
The internationally recognized government of Yemen holds nominal power over the country’s southern and eastern provinces, which are effectively controlled by a patchwork of armed groups.
The conflict reignited in July, as tensions rose across the region during the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, the Houthis’ primary backer.
In September, the Houthis staged a rapid offensive on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, taking control of the strategically-located port city of Mokha as well as the strip of land beside the Bab al-Mandab. In October, they advanced toward Taiz.
Soon after, the Yemeni government said its forces were mounting a new campaign to retake all of Yemen from the Houthis, backed by Saudi warplanes. That began with a counter offensive toward the Red Sea but the gains have been limited and fleeting.
At the same time, the Houthis have carried out a series of deadly and damaging attacks in Saudi Arabia, striking the international airport in the capital of Riyadh and a tower belonging to the state oil company.
A spokesman for the Yemeni government military, Colonel Majed Abdullah Al-Nuzaili, said in a statement on Sunday that the government’s operation to retake the country from the Houthis would continue. He also called on world powers to aid the Yemeni government.
“The international community must assume its responsibilities by contributing to the liberation operation, given the strait’s vital importance to maritime security and international trade,” he added.
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sanaa, Yemen, and Saeed Al-Batati contributed reporting from al-Mukalla, Yemen.
