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Houthi officials announced on 14 September 2026 that the group had seized Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish, the two main islands of the Hanish archipelago in the southern Red Sea.
The islands lie about 160 km north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the chokepoint linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The seizure followed the fall of the mainland port of Mokha on 10 September and of Perim, also called Mayun, inside the strait on 11 September.
Nearly 94,000 people have fled their homes since early September and about 500 were killed in the week to 12 September.
The Hanish archipelago was the subject of a 1995 armed clash between Yemen and Eritrea, settled by a Permanent Court of Arbitration award in 1998 that gave most of the islands to Yemen.
The Hanish archipelago sits in the southern Red Sea off the Yemeni coast, roughly 160 km north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait itself separates Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula from Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, and is split by Perim (Mayun) island. Ships passing through move between the Red Sea to the north, which leads via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, and the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south.
Intergovernmental body providing arbitration and other dispute-settlement services to states; it heard the Eritrea-Yemen arbitration and delivered the 1998 award on sovereignty over the Hanish archipelago
Eritrean forces take Greater Hanish from Yemen in three days of fighting after a disputed withdrawal deadline.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration delivers its first award, giving sovereignty over most of the archipelago to Yemen while preserving Eritrean fishing rights.
Houthi forces capture the Red Sea port of Mokha on the Yemeni mainland.
Perim (Mayun) island, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, falls to the Houthis.
Houthi officials announce the seizure of Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish.
GS Paper I > World Geography > Straits and chokepoints; GS Paper II > International Relations > West Asia
General Awareness > World Geography > Seas, straits and islands
Consider the following statements: Statement-I: Sumed pipeline is a strategic route for Persian Gulf oil... Statement-II: Sumed pipeline connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
Answer: Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct...
Consider the following statements: 1. The Red Sea receives very little precipitation in any form. 2. No water enters the Red Sea from rivers. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: Both 1 and 2
The "Suez Canal" connects the Mediterranean Sea with which Sea?
Answer: Red Sea
A narrow stretch of sea through which a large share of world trade must pass, such as Bab el-Mandeb, Hormuz, Malacca or the Suez Canal.
The formal name of the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.
An intergovernmental organisation at The Hague that arranges arbitration between states; it decided the Eritrea-Yemen dispute over the Hanish Islands.