🔴 Bab el-Mandeb: The New Digital Chokepoint Threatens Trade

The Red Sea crisis is no longer just about missiles, drones, and merchant ships. Now, with the Houthis' growing ability to compromise the safety of shipping, Bab el-Mandeb is also becoming a digital flashpoint, where maritime security, telecommunications, satellite navigation, and strategic infrastructure converge in a single risk scenario. By mid-September 2026, the situation had returned to pressure: a Reuters reconstruction of Ansar Allah's military evolution revealed that the movement now possesses the capacity to exert pressure on a much larger scale, using missiles, drones, and other systems. However, geography makes the issue even more salient: Bab el-Mandeb connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and, through Suez, to European and global trade routes.