Red Sea Weekly: Houthi claims on Abha, a siege in Taiz and Yemenis landing in Berbera


A SAAB TV graphic showing Yemeni arrivals being received at Berbera port in Somaliland under Somaliland and Yemeni flags, shared on X on November 3, 2026

A SAAB TV graphic shared on X on November 3, 2026 shows Yemeni asylum seekers being received at Berbera port in Somaliland after crossing the Gulf of Aden, with Somaliland and Yemeni flags added to the image. Photo: SAAB TV (@tvsaab) via X

The Houthis claimed strikes on Abha airport and a Saudi air base as the coalition reported a drone downed near Mecca, while Taiz stayed sealed and Yemenis fleeing the war reached Berbera.

This is Mereja Media’s Red Sea Weekly, a Wednesday look at the waters and coasts between the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden, and at the countries on both shores whose wars and trade depend on them.

The week’s number: 80. That is how many kilometers separated Houthi forces from Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, on Monday, Reuters reported, citing four military sources who said fighting had reached a military camp at the entrance to Tur al Bahah. It is the movement’s closest approach to the port city since 2015, and the advance threatens the main road between Aden and Taiz as well as the flank of government forces near Bab el Mandeb.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis told two different stories on Tuesday. Early in the day the spokesman for the Saudi led coalition, Major General Turki al Maliki, said a drone had been intercepted and destroyed in the Mecca region, according to the Saudi Press Agency, which gave no other details. The Houthis denied launching any drone toward Saudi Arabia that day and called the accusation lies, several Arab outlets reported. Hours later, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced two operations: a drone strike on Abha International Airport that he said halted air traffic there, and a ballistic missile that he said scored a direct hit on the air base at Khamis Mushait, Al Jazeera reported. Anadolu Agency noted that Saudi authorities and the coalition did not immediately comment on those claims.

The coalition later said it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward southern Saudi Arabia, and Euronews reported that warning alerts sounded in Abha, Khamis Mushait and Taif before the all clear was given, with no injuries announced. Al Thawra, the Yemeni government newspaper, said the coalition had also downed a drone launched toward the south of the kingdom. Mereja Media could not verify any of these claims independently. On social media, some Arab users asked the obvious question. Jalmoud (@JalmoudX), an account that offers political commentary, wrote that the coalition’s statement on the Mecca drone did not say who had launched it, and asked whether evidence would be published “to settle the contradiction between the two accounts.”

In Taiz, the humanitarian picture worsened. United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher said on Monday that all roads into the city were closed and that supplies were running out, Anadolu Agency reported. He said water production had been cut in half, food prices had risen by at least 50 percent and hospitals were short of fuel and medicine, and he appealed directly to the fighters: “Open the roads and let them through.” Nearly 300,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since fighting resumed in August, according to UN figures, and the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper reported that the siege had pushed up the price of goods in Taiz.

On the coast, the battle for the mountains above Bab el Mandeb went on. Abu Madhhaj al Alhi (@ltmyltmy892162), a partisan account from Abyan province that posts tributes to the Giants Brigades, the southern forces fighting on that front, posted on Tuesday a series of tributes to fighters it said had been killed in the Kahboob mountains while trying to stop the Houthi advance. Mereja Media could not verify the account’s claims or the number of dead. Not everyone on the government side was cheering. AL Husam (@samiah711), a user who backs the coalition, wrote that the way the battle was being run under Abu Zaraa al Muharrami, a member of Yemen’s presidential council and commander of the Giants Brigades, raised serious questions, describing a steady drain on Yemeni and Saudi forces after “more than six attacks toward Bab el Mandeb” that had not settled the fight.

The war is pushing people across the water. A small boat carrying 20 Yemenis, adults and children, has landed in Berbera, Somaliland’s Ministry of Resettlement and Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement reported by SAAB TV on Tuesday. The ministry said the group was taken to a reception center for health checks and registration that would take about three days, and the station reported that more Yemenis were waiting in Yemeni ports for a chance to cross.

Trade has not stopped. The Saudi Ports Authority, known as Mawani, has added the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s ZEPHYR service to the ports of Jeddah and Rabigh, on a line that also calls at Djibouti on the route between Asia and Europe through Bab el Mandeb, the Djibouti news account Vue sur Djibouti (@View_of_Djib) reported. China, meanwhile, said its special representative for African affairs, Liu Xianfa, would tour Ethiopia, Djibouti and Egypt, according to the Djibouti news site Djib Live (@LiveDjib), which cited the Chinese foreign ministry.

For Somaliland and Djibouti, the two African ports closest to Yemen, the coming weeks will show whether the arrivals at Berbera remain a trickle. “Djibouti confirmed as a strategic stop on the Asia to Europe axis via Bab el Mandeb,” Vue sur Djibouti wrote of the new shipping service, a reminder that the same strait carries both the refugees and the cargo.

Sources

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