In Yemen's port, the ships have stopped coming (2024)

International View

The Yemeni Houthi have been attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea for months. In doing so, they have plunged the shipping industry into the biggest crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic. But as a visit to Aden shows, it is the Yemenis themselves who are suffering the most.

Daniel Böhm (text), Dominic Nahr (photos), Aden

August 16, 2024 9 min

Fahdeh al-Hujaili says that it hadn't exactly been easy before. «But the situation has gotten much worse since October,» he adds. The deputy general manager of the port of Aden is sitting in his pleasantly cool office in a modern, spotlessly clean administration building.

Outside, the midday sun beats down on the quay. Four huge cranes rise motionless into the bright blue sky. A few men in yellow high-visibility vests are standing around. Only two ships are docked here. They are feeder ships that unload only a few containers before returning to Dubai or Djibouti.

Aden, the port city in the far south of Yemen, has been in decline for a long time. First, pirates raged in neighboring Somalia. Then a civil war broke out that devastated parts of the city, and continues to this day in the more remote parts of the country. And as if all this wasn't bad enough, the Islamist Houthi militias are now terrorizing shipping in the Red Sea from their base in northern Yemen.

The most feared pirates in the world

«Since the Houthi have begun hunting ships, hardly anyone has put in at Aden’s harbor,» says Hujaili, taking a sip of coffee. The figures presented by his staff back up this claim. The port has seen a 50% drop in revenue this year, they say. However, Hujaili says the damage is extending far beyond his operations. «They are harming us all. Us Yemenis – but also the whole world.»

Until recently, the Houthi were merely an obscure, strictly Islamist Shiite militia that had seized power in the capital Sanaa in 2015, during the turmoil of the Yemeni civil war. But recently, these militia soldiers from the south of the Arabian Peninsula have mutated into the most feared pirates in the world.

Supported by Iran, the fighters have since October repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea, in solidarity with the besieged Palestinians in Gaza. They bombard merchant ships with drones and missiles. They even seized a cargo ship and brought it into their territory, along with its crew. The Houthis are also targeting the United Nations. Just last week, militia fighters stormed the organization’s office in Sanaa, having already abducted a dozen local employees.

The Americans and their allies are using airstrikes in efforts to dissuade the Yemeni rebels from such tactics. But the Houthis have not seemed impressed. Quite the opposite: Recently, the conflict even threatened to escalate. After the Yemenis recently launched a drone that reached Tel Aviv, Israel itself launched attacks on Houthi positions and the group’s port in Hodeidah.

Most ships avoiding the region

Hujaili and his employees in the port of Aden are not the only ones feeling the consequences of this naval war. This is because the world's most important trade route runs through the waters off the coast of Yemen. It leads from Asia to Europe, past the so-called Gate of Tears at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, up through the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean.

Countless cargo ships and tankers used to sail here. But the sea between Arabia and Africa is now almost empty. «Nine out of 10 ships are currently avoiding the Red Sea,» says Peter Sand, chief analyst for international shipping analytics company Xeneta. With their attacks, the Houthi fighters have plunged the global transport industry into the worst crisis since the coronavirus pandemic, the expert says.

Almost all cargo ships traveling from Asia to Europe now take a detour via the Cape of Good Hope, rounding the whole of Africa in the process. This trip takes three weeks longer, and is also more expensive. «It normally costs between $1,000 and $2,000 to transport a container from Asia to Europe,» says Sand. «It now costs up to $8,000.»

However, exploding costs are not the only problem. The detour is also leading to chaos and delays. Ships are being filled to capacity due to the longer turnaround times, Sand says. «Many shipping companies are now unloading their ships in ports in the western Mediterranean instead of the eastern Mediterranean, as before,» he notes. «The goods are then transported onward from there. In Barcelona, for example, capacities are being pushed to their limits.»

Yemen itself suffering the most

The effects are particularly evident in industries that rely on perfectly functioning supply chains. For example, the automotive industry began experiencing massive delays even last winter, Sand says. As is usual, the costs have then been passed on to the end customer, while the shipping companies have benefited from the high prices, he adds.

However, the Houthi trade war is causing the most devastation not in the West, but in the surrounding Arab countries. In Egypt, for example, the lack of revenue from the Suez Canal is tearing another hole in the already empty state coffers. In Lebanon, where the economy has been completely devastated after years of crisis, imports are now becoming even more expensive.

But Yemen itself – an already impoverished country where civil war, epidemics and famine have claimed almost half a million lives over the last decade – is suffering the most. «We are feeling it in all areas,» says Mohammed Shadli, the deputy governor of Aden, at a meeting in one of the city's few open hotels.

The port and the airport are extremely important for the survival of Aden and the remoter areas behind it, the politician said. «If ships can no longer call at the port, the lights go out for us,» he says. Yemen is already suffering from galloping inflation. An entrepreneur from Aden says he now has to spend considerable sums of money just to bring goods into the country at all.

A dreary place

In addition, the city’s power supply is constantly breaking down, in part due to a lack of spare parts for the power station. The few functioning hospitals are now importing medicines and medical equipment overland from Saudi Arabia to Aden. However, all of this has to be transported hundreds of kilometers across the desert in trucks.

Further inland – for example in the besieged city of Taiz, the northern part of which is occupied by Houthi forces – the supply situation is even worse. During our visit to the embattled city, the administration official responsible for supplies says that a new access route has at least been opened. But the starting point for this route – the small port of Mocha – is located directly on the Red Sea, and is therefore even more affected by the Houthi attacks than Aden.

A number of other problems linger as well – such as the sanctions imposed by the Americans against the Houthis, which are leading to bottlenecks and delays. Moreover, in some senses, the Yemenis themselves are standing in their own way. The country's officially recognized government, which fled from the capital Sanaa to Aden in 2015, and has been fighting the Houthi rebels with Saudi help ever since, is itself only a loose coalition of militia chiefs and tribal leaders.

Some of its members have conflicting interests and different foreign allies, and are constantly engaged in conflict with each other instead of tackling the problems together. All of this has turned Aden into a dreary place with pockmarked houses and ruined buildings. Most of the damage dates from around 2015, when the Houthi tried in vain to conquer the city. However, hardly anything has been repaired since then.

«We have always been able to maintain operations»

Yet Aden can in fact look back on a glorious past. In the early 20th century, the trading city was a proud British crown colony, halfway between India and London. The Royal Navy operated a large naval base here. «Back then, we had one of the most important ports in the world here,» says Hujaili, the current port director.

In theory, the conditions for this are still in place. Aden is strategically located at the exit of the Red Sea.The city, which is located at the end of a bay, is also by nature a perfect place for a harbor. The rocks of an extinct volcano rise out of the sea like the walls of a natural fortress, protecting anchored ships from wind and weather.

Despite all the problems, the employees are proud of their port, which was expanded in the 1990s to include a container terminal, and belonged to the Dubai-based DP World logistics group for a number of years. «We are open 24 hours a day, and have always been able to maintain operations even during the worst turmoil of the civil war,» says Gamal Mohammed, who is responsible for operations.

More trade wars in the future

Hujaili, his superior at the port, also emphasizes that the operating company is independent, and does not belong to any of the country’s numerous militias. «We are probably the only company in Yemen that is run according to international standards, and functions accordingly,» he says. However, this does little to change the unhappy situation. Because as long as the Houthis continue to attack ships in the Red Sea, hardly anyone will visit Aden in the future, apart from a few supply ships.

There is currently no end in sight to the fighting. Moreover, the crisis may be just a foretaste of what is to come. «I think we will see more trade wars like this,» says Xeneta analyst Peter Sand, referencing the U.S. elections and conflicts such as the one between China and Taiwan. «For merchant shipping, geopolitical crises are therefore one of the biggest challenges of the future.»

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