r/news 10h ago

Nearly 50,000 Yemeni civilians flee as Houthis advance along Red Sea coast

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/12/yemen-houthi-advance-red-sea-coast-displaces-civilians-bab-al-mandab
2.3k Upvotes

235 comments sorted by

629

u/ndwillia 10h ago

“Sir, there is a second strait waterway used to transport oil that is now being occupied in a hostile manner”

93

u/ClassicT4 6h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

55

u/LargeMobOfMurderers 5h ago

There are concepts of bombs

6

u/Future-Vermicelli429 4h ago

Interceptors are different than bombs

-1

u/Tappone 3h ago

JDAMs are fully in stock, there is no shortage of bombs.

37

u/Prestigious-Moose415 4h ago

"alright, I'll handle that in a minute. But right now I need to find out what's happening with the duck."

8

u/KatuahCareAVan 2h ago

Emperor Honorius said as much in 410ce as the Goths were strategically secured to take Rome.

55

u/saint_ryan 4h ago

Imagine how much worse this would all be if we had elected the woman!!! /s

5

u/OutlawSundown 3h ago

And not just oil but an incredible amount of consumer goods.

6

u/ringadingdingbaby 3h ago

Just call it America and job done

474

u/InactiveMedusa 10h ago

These constant small escalations, Jesus. Is this the same thing people in the 30s were going through reading newspapers?

592

u/xxtoejamfootballxx 10h ago

This isn’t small, this is major.  They have cut off the Red Sea and the Saudi oil pipeline, this will compound in major ways for oil prices and cause gas to spike high around the world but in the US in particular right as we approach the critical 252M barrels in the strategic reserve.  Shits gonna get bad. 

262

u/TheOsirisOfThisShit_ 9h ago

Everyone is focused on the oil, but there's another big deal. 18 major fiber optic cables run through the Bab al Mandab strait. They combine to carry 20% of the world's internet traffic and 90% of the traffic between Europe and Asia.

355

u/blueskies8484 9h ago

It’s trade, it’s oil, it’s diesel, it’s fertilizer, it’s the expense, it’s the lack of remaining patriot interceptors, it’s the drawing in of so many countries to a conflict in the Middle East, it’s Russia and Ukraine still happening, it’s infrastructure, it’s massive debt, it’s the return of horrifying disease outbreaks, and tangentially it’s the rise of facism in Europe and the US. It’s everything. People are irrationally unpanicked.

168

u/krypticus 8h ago

WRONG.

You also forgot global warming!

22

u/generated_user-name 3h ago

You obviously don’t go to a Missouri College. They know global warming is opinion there

u/Daxx22 13m ago

Global warming is the pressure cooker pot all this other bullshit is trapped in.

-2

u/CosineDanger 1h ago

Also China

I honestly thought they'd have moved already. What are you waiting for? I was promised a real war and you're late, Xi.

5

u/wahoozerman 1h ago

Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.

12

u/Snooty_Cutie 4h ago

This is fine.

11

u/crazyoldwizard72 5h ago

If they go nuke, I won't feel a thing. I have been training for this since Reagan.

10

u/Future-Vermicelli429 4h ago

You may still feel like a lot lol depends how far u are u may get lucky but maybe not

5

u/boat--boy 4h ago

Welcome back 1920’s and 30’s!

2

u/sancatrundown73 2h ago

Well yeah we're all still going to work. Gotta keep this K shaped economy rolling for the fat elite swine.

u/ThePlanck 25m ago

and tangentially it’s the rise of facism in Europe and the US. It’s everything. People are irrationally unpanicked.

Fascism rising in the US?

Its a bit late for that isn't it?

1

u/Mobb_Barley 2h ago

I spent years panicking and pleading with people. At this point I say bring it. Let these people see what they voted for.

-13

u/Ultimate_Fluff 8h ago

You mean rationally panicked.

We have a perfectly rational reason to be shitting bricks right now.

43

u/ragnarok635 8h ago

No you read that wrong, unrational that we’re unpanicked

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45

u/Hvarfa-Bragi 9h ago

There's also the "if the houthis want they can force all suez trade to go around Africa causing just a bit of a slight annoyance to global trade"

10

u/vassadar 7h ago

How "slight" is that in term of criticality

35

u/grey_hat_uk 5h ago

Slight in the same way 2008 was a slight financial incident.

11

u/Peter_deT 5h ago

Actually slight - except for Saudi. The Cape route is already used by very large ships, and a lot of traffic has diverted to it over the past three years. The cost has already been absorbed along the supply chain.

Also, a Houthi spokesman has said that traffic is free - except for Saudi, the US and Israel. So big deal for Saudi, not so much for everyone else.

2

u/Izeinwinter 4h ago

Well, it will cause Maersk to move uo their plans to go for nuclear powered freight by years. (The Africa run is much longer, and it has no channels where you need special permission to use reactors. )So. Quite a lot of criticality.

94

u/JackLaytonsMoustache 10h ago

Shits gonna get bad. 

Ummm. I think you're forgetting..

"Nothing bad can happen it can only good happen."

24

u/Rocinante88119 9h ago edited 9h ago

"Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson.

Things will infact, calm up."

-Teal'c, Stargate SG1

6

u/River- 7h ago

The drip of a Setesh guard's nose is going to have greater flow than oil there at this rate.

61

u/InactiveMedusa 10h ago

I've never met someone who works at the Whitehouse, nice to meet you.

44

u/JackLaytonsMoustache 10h ago

covfefe hamberders.

u/invaderaleks 25m ago

I say, "time for some covfefe" everytime I get coffee 🤣

6

u/CategoryZestyclose91 7h ago

 Glad I’m not the only one who remembers this. 

I actually use this quote a lot 😂

34

u/Geo85 9h ago

Time for Canada to charge an export tax on their oil. 

4

u/Tribe303 3h ago

Since China and the US consume all of their own oil, and don't sell it. Canada is now the world's largest oil exporter, without fucked production issues, followed by... Brazil. There's your New World Order right there. 🤣 

15

u/Other-Comfortable-64 10h ago

They have cut off the Red Sea

For Saudi ships

10

u/gunsjustsuck 8h ago

They actually sent an email to international users and major insurance companies pointing this out. 

40

u/Rayona086 9h ago

This might not be the most popular take but the USA needs some bad times. To many people just take for granted what those before them have provided them. We need some tough times and tight belts to remember why things were fought for.

17

u/Audioworm 6h ago

the issue is that while many people are saying that the US need to have a better understanding of what their dominion means and looks like, a whole lot of people are going to suffer while it is slowly worked out. these conflicts are destabilising and deadly beyond the direct casualties of war, and it feels sort of gross to describe the deaths of thousands as a usual thing for Americans to maybe change their mind.

20

u/DrinkingVomit 8h ago

And to remind us we need to drop the bullshit culture squabbles and get back to what matters — I’m afraid in the era of social media that won’t happen.

2

u/Guy_GuyGuy 7h ago

No, I don't think that's as unpopular as you think around here. We clearly need to hurt and we need it to hurt bad.

2

u/Future-Vermicelli429 4h ago

See but that attitude in itself is a first world problem to have. In the countries where every day is a struggle to survive, they cling to life and they want nothing but an end to suffering truly, only a decadent westerner could have the mindset of oh yeah, we need some of that starvation and suffering too, when if you were to ask those people in those affected countries, they would want the suffering to stop everywhere edit to add: to pretend like the US isn’t responsible for suffering would be ridiculous but only speaking on the thought process

1

u/krosseyed 3h ago

I figured after Trump won a second time we'd be tucked for~25 years

0

u/boblabon 2h ago

For some people, the only way for them to learn that the stove is hot is to get burned

-1

u/Parcours97 2h ago

Lol. Gas prices in the US are still an absolute joke compared to all other western countries. Cry me a fucking river.

-1

u/Parcours97 2h ago

Gas prices in the US are still an absolute joke compared to all other western countries. Cry me a river.

1

u/xxtoejamfootballxx 1h ago

So? It will still heavy impact inflation on basically everything

u/Parcours97 20m ago

I sure hope it does.

13

u/jiiiveturkay 6h ago

There’s a great YouTube channel called World War 2 that has an episode for each week of the war so you can get a feel for how the war actually felt as it happened.

https://m.youtube.com/@WorldWarTwo

Edit: and yeah, it’s much like this.

3

u/JortsKitty 4h ago

You might be interested in this.

https://www.youtube.com/@flatcirclehistory/videos

This guy does a blow-by-blow of a hypothetical WW3. It's addictive.

13

u/ThePensiveE 7h ago

Sure but in this analogy America bombed itself at Pearl Harbor because FDR had a mistress he didn't want the public to know about.

21

u/ItsTheEndOfDays 10h ago

probably. They also didn’t have enough people paying attention to just how bad things were.

This time around, we’re (the USA) going to be on the wrong side of WWIII.

2

u/iffugennanameubaht 7h ago

Yes. We are probably already in WW3.

1

u/ClassicT4 6h ago

I keep saying this decade will be referred to as the Warring 20s. I wouldn’t be surprised if they soft-label it as World War III.

230

u/VariationDry 9h ago

Just the other day someone was arguing with me that the Houthis were practically eliminated. Well well well, whaddya know? Looks like I was correct in assuming that the same people who have been fighting for hundreds of years are still fighting. 

89

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

45

u/UnidosJamaisVencidos 8h ago

AKA, MAGA propagandists.

15

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

28

u/Mymvenom001 6h ago

Unfortunately the BBC and CNN serve the same main actors, the billionaires.

-17

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

20

u/SAGORN 6h ago

How To Sell a Genocide by Adam H. Johnson, you should check it out as well Citations Needed by Adam and Nima Shirazi.

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15

u/Mymvenom001 6h ago

Not a conspiracy lmao, its proven that all major news outlets including but not all encompassing: NYT CNN BBC WAPO etc etc all report news in an editorialized version that serves billionaires purposes.

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1

u/Vicorin 5h ago

How much fun puppies have

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3

u/whutizzenextstep 6h ago

This belief became very popularised in the months before and after the Twelve-Day war but before the 2026 war against Iran. I’ve seen many people even say that the ‘Axis of Resistance’ entirely no longer exists after the collapse of Ba’athist Syria.

12

u/mapped_apples 5h ago

Looks like we’re clear on OPSEC. 

🙏✊🦅🇺🇸

80

u/Sheeple_person 10h ago

Well surely this will help the gas prices

41

u/EngineeringApart4606 5h ago

It’s not a good look when America launches unprovoked attacks that kill thousands, in their schools and beds, and all people talk about in America is gas prices and their impact on elections

17

u/Stupidamericanfatty 5h ago

If only my people game a fuck.

u/Ventex_ 11m ago

That's something that's getting talked about because it's something the people who are in full support of bombing schools can't tolerate: the slightest personal inconvenience.

28

u/mrblahblahblah 4h ago

" fuck everything up , in order to profit bigly"

Don Tzu

19

u/ProfessorDerp22 2h ago

Meanwhile MBS asked Trump for US support, on (or about) the 25th anniversary of 9/11 … which we all know was carried out by mostly Saudi nationals.

40

u/Bubbly-Two-3449 7h ago

Well great. We've kicked another hornets nest and sunk the middle east into chaos again. Brillant folks in the WH.

0

u/Taconinja05 4h ago

What’s with the tradition of fucking over the Middle East??

2

u/TheSouthernCommunist 1h ago

Capitalism and resource extraction

14

u/Wildwildworld123 9h ago

Bro is ready to take on the whole world with that absolute honker of Khat!

81

u/JB-Wentworth 10h ago

When the Saudi’s check clears, US troops will be sent to ‘liberate’ Yemen

90

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

32

u/Hairy_rambutan 8h ago

A Saudi prince calling the US for military aid on the 25th anniversary of Bin Laden and Co's biggest attack would probably have been met with a frosty response by any administration.

30

u/Scaryclouds 4h ago

lol nothing absolutely nothing suggests that Trump would actually “care” about that. He tried to arrange a meeting with the Taliban at Camp David on 9/11. Oh and he was fucking bragging, on TV, during the 9/11 about how Trump Tower was now the tallest tower in lower manhattan. Naturally this to was a lie. 

57

u/Stubbs94 8h ago

I don't think any US administration cares that the Saudis were responsible for 9/11. They wouldn't have done atrocities in Iraq if that was the case.

7

u/Jumpy_Cauliflower410 4h ago

Right after the towers fell, Trump boasted that his tower was the tallest in Manhattan. You think he cares?

102

u/progbuck 10h ago

The Army that can't keep Iran from closing Hormuz? Trump has already gutted the military.

1

u/platanthera_ciliaris 9h ago

I don't know... The Saudi's are pretty hard up these days. They have to borrow over $50 billion to pay their bills.

-13

u/Phat_and_Irish 10h ago

They did that under Biden/Harris admin already, Operation Amazon Prime dropping bombs on yemeni ppl for trying to put economic pressure on Israel 

21

u/JB-Wentworth 9h ago

You might update Wikipedia, as they are unaware of Biden putting US troops in Yemen.

16

u/Phat_and_Irish 9h ago edited 9h ago

American pilots inside yemeni airspace, American sailors in yemeni waters, if you don't wanna call them troops that's your call 

Edit: I wonder what the commenter under me said that got removed. 

-2

u/TrumpsBussy_ 9h ago

And they ended up baling, they got their asses handed to them by the Houthi’s.

1

u/CastIronDaddy 3h ago

Lol, with what army and what munitions??? Trump has destroyed our military in the Middle East. We can't keep an aircraft carrier from rusting

29

u/UnidosJamaisVencidos 8h ago

Trump has done more for renewables than any previous US president.

I'm actually thankful for the MAGA dumbness.

19

u/CascadianHermit 7h ago

Lol, it's certainly happening in China rn, they pretty much bailed out the global economy by cutting oil imports by 40% I think? (Might be 20%)

7

u/InteractionPretend70 7h ago

5d chess. getting people to go ev and solar panels was his plan all along

1

u/arul20 3h ago

He might be a genius.

27

u/hefty_load_o_shite 10h ago

What will we ever do with all this winning?!

27

u/kstargate-425 10h ago

They flee as besides the Houthis they will bring air strikes and lots of incoming missiles from the US and Saudis. Trump already sent a few hundred "advisors" to help the Saudis and they are going to heavily push back considering they are threatening the Red Sea and already shut down the major oil pipeline that supplies 5% of GLOBAL oil supply. More shitshows to be had

24

u/cerberus698 10h ago

The last time we went hard against Ansar Allah they somehow managed to hit an F-35 and we backed off. I could see them kind of just letting this sit as long as the media stops talking about it.

That or we deliberately respond in a way that makes it all worse in a month. Thats also very on the table with this administration.

1

u/Tribe303 3h ago

Lots of missiles? I guess you haven't been paying attention. 🤦 

8

u/BasicBanter 6h ago

nothing happens, then everything happens all at once, I wonder what the world will be like in 2039

u/Tra1lhawk19 32m ago

What world? We are fooked

9

u/Accomplished_Sky8077 8h ago

They also took out the Saudi pipeline today.. are we winning yet???

4

u/solomons-mom 3h ago

Yemen population
1960: 5.5 million
1980: 9.5 million
2000: 19.6 million
2026: 43.2 million
Median age: about 19

About 85% of Yemenis are part of a tribe, and I am guessing westerners will soon know the names of more tribes than just the Houthis. Tribes fight each other, and with a median age of 19, there are plenty of young men in the fighting cue.

4

u/BluCurry8 2h ago

According to the article, there has been peace for the past few years due to a UN brokered agreement. The argument is focused on current events in the region and the fact that the Israeli/US incursion has now destabilized the peace process in the region and is reversing back to proxy wars. Basically actions have consequences and that never seems to be considered when governments choose violence and wars rather than dialogue and diplomacy.

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8

u/Making-Spirits 8h ago

This war was started by Donald Trump. We all around the world will suffer.

29

u/absolutelynotagoblin 7h ago

It was started for no reason or purpose with no clear mission or objectives, no goals, and no exit strategy and without the approval of Congress.

3

u/Tribe303 3h ago

No, it was started to distract from the Epstein files. Apparently it's working, because you forgot! 

6

u/CascadianHermit 7h ago

Yupppp, he could have negotiated with the Iranians and get a big political win but instead he thought Iran would be like Venezuela

5

u/sjintje 5h ago

Trump has nothing to do with the houthi/yemeni war.

3

u/Tribe303 3h ago

The Houthis and the Saudis had a truce, until Trump attacked Iran. You could not be more wrong. 

1

u/thewiggen 1h ago

Saudis attacked them in July. Truce was over because of that

u/Tribe303 16m ago

Trump started bombing Iran in February! 🤦 

9

u/ElderberryJunior470 3h ago

If you don't think trump starting the war with iran and iran destroying a big chunk of the US bases in the middle east, weakening the US potential force projection in the region, directly led to these events, i have a 5000 dollar tariff check I'd love to sell you. 

-3

u/Taconinja05 4h ago

If Trump didn’t attack Iran they wouldnt have their Houthi proxies attacking Saudi Arabia

10

u/CressCheap 4h ago

Are you serious? What exactly happened since 2014? Exactly this

1

u/rumora 5h ago

This war was actually started all the way back under Obama. The Houthis took power in 2014 and in early 2015 the Saudi lead coalition, which includes the US and countries like France and the UK, invaded to restore the old government.

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-11

u/SaneForCocoaPuffs 8h ago

If they were Palestinian civilians this would be called a genocide.

But these Yemenis are enemies of Iran so their suffering is no big deal.

6

u/Stubbs94 8h ago

There's no indication of mass murder of civilians and an attempt to destroy in whole or in part a protected group. This is a civil war, not an occupied people being massacred by the occupation.

-7

u/SaneForCocoaPuffs 7h ago

Might want to double check that death toll, then we can skip past the “they didn’t kill that many” to “it’s just collateral damage/war” part of the argument closely followed by “if they didn’t fight back they wouldn’t be killed”

I’ve talked with enough Zionists to know exactly what arguments people make to justify mass murder and mass expulsion.

2

u/Stubbs94 7h ago

I'm not justifying or downplaying any of it. Israeli militants deliberately took measures to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part. Brutal civil wars where the same group dying is the same group killing them is not a genocide by definition. Death tolls aren't what define a genocide, the intent of the destruction of a group in whole or in part does. Ansar Allah clearly aren't trying to eradicate the Yemeni people.

-6

u/THCRaven 7h ago

So as long as it doesn't fit the definition it's ok to kill any number of people, or at least not as bad, isn't that the definition of downplaying or just downright delusion?

3

u/Stubbs94 7h ago

How did you get that from what I was saying? Calling a civil war a genocide is stupid and does cover for actual genocides. The Yemeni civil war is horrific, like any civil war, there are always atrocities, even in the Irish civil war, which was tiny in comparison, there were atrocities committed by both sides.

-5

u/THCRaven 7h ago

Because the way I see it you were just arguing semantics in response to a valid criticism, which implies that you are actually biased in regards to the Palestine situation, otherwise you would just have mentally acknowledged the fact and moved on, instead of arguing semantics.

I don't normally comment on these points, but this time I'm actually curious about the reasoning here, you agree that killing is bad but at the same time you say it "covers for actual genocides" implying that the genecide of x people is worse than the killing of x people

7

u/CascadianHermit 6h ago

"arguing semantics", well yeah, words gotta mean something! I guess the killing of Nazi pows at the hands of the soviet's is a genocide

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4

u/Stubbs94 6h ago

The Ansar Allah movement have not mass murdered civilians nor been accused of doing so. The forces they are fighting have however. The Saudis have been accused of genocide, the Ansar Allah movement have committed human rights violations but nothing close to what is happening in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar etc.

-2

u/CascadianHermit 7h ago

What are you saying? While the Houthis are a very conservative group they are fighting against Saudi/American backed groups. Need you be reminded the Saudis and Americans were the ones who did massive bombing campaigns on Yemen that killed thousands?

-5

u/7StarSailor 7h ago

Hasan Piker approves. Just like in One Piece 😲 👉

-7

u/SAGORN 6h ago

How’s SexPestiny’s legal troubles these days?

6

u/7StarSailor 5h ago

What? you don't like this one cringe streamer? that must mean you like this other cringe streamer!!!

I know it's hard for you to imagine but there's people who can survive without worshipping any twitch streamer at all

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1

u/7StarSailor 5h ago

I wonder if they have read one piece 

1

u/SJIS0122 5h ago

Time for the Yemeni government to retreat to Socotra island?

u/sawb11152 40m ago

Idk Houthis guys think they are but that's not cool.

0

u/tamal4444 7h ago

Maybe we in the start of ww3.

0

u/omnie_fm 8h ago

Wouldn't an army advancing along a coast make a tempting target?

-11

u/xGenocidest 10h ago

Probably don't want be made into slaves.

5

u/CascadianHermit 6h ago

Not to say that's not possible but varying forms of slavery are present across Yemen including areas controlled by the Yemeni government, though the Houthis themselves have been accused of practicing slavery.

0

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

2

u/LackOfWafffles 7h ago

Are you sure you are in the right thread?

1

u/NewToHTX 7h ago

Yes this is the wrong thread.

1

u/LackOfWafffles 7h ago

Oh, good we cleared that up then. Have a nice night!

-7

u/xschalken 4h ago

Onnce again America starts a conflict that leads to the death of innocents, those Iranian schoolgirls in particular, and the misery and displacement of tens of thousands of people.

And what are the American people doing about it? Nothing. They are waiting for the November elections while they go about their lives eating MacDonald's and watching Netflix, their lives are ok, what do they care.

It is difficult to describe the level of contempt I feel for Americans at this time.

2

u/BluCurry8 2h ago

That is fine to be contemptuous but other than voting in November, I am not sure what you think the average citizen can do. After the new congress comes in they can defund the war and block Trump. That is the most powerful tool in the us citizens toolbox. Protesting gets media attention but rarely changes anything.

1

u/Telcontar77 1h ago

Protesting gets media attention but rarely changes anything.

Americans pretending they know what a protest is. Meanwhile, they haven't done real protests in decades.

-4

u/Tech-Film3905 2h ago

The Guardian is pure trash. Life under the PLC is worse for Yemeni people than Ansarallah

5

u/BluCurry8 2h ago

That was not the focus this particular article. Maybe you could find and post an article that addresses your concerns rather than just saying “guardian is trash”. You are not making a case for your argument.