An American military official: There are no signs of a recovery in shipping traffic in the Red Sea after the Houthi attacks

The Washington Post said that missile and drone attacks launched by Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen have halved commercial shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, as the top US naval commander in the region says he does not see much desire among carriers to return. Large numbers returned to the vital waterway despite a major protection operation by US forces and their allies.

Adm. George Wyckoff, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet stationed in the Middle East, meets regularly with transportation industry leaders about the status of Operation Prosperity Sentinel, the U.S.-led coalition formed in December 2023 in response to Houthi attacks on commercial ships passing near the choke point in the Strait. Bab al-Mandab between Yemen and Djibouti.

The attacks caused ship traffic through the Red Sea to drop by 50%, prompting shipping companies to start routing ships around Africa, while adding about 11,000 nautical miles and $1 million in fuel costs. Houthi attacks continued despite multiple strikes launched by the United States and Israel on sites on the Yemeni coast in recent months.

“We used to see about 2,000 ships passing through [the Bab al-Mandeb] a month,” Adm. Wyckoff said Wednesday at a discussion hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Now, we see about 1,000 ships passing through it.”