It was a heart-pounding escape. As Houthi rebels backed by Iran swept south along Yemen’s Red Sea coast this week, some residents had little time to flee.
“We set out in hysterical panic on a motorcycle, not knowing where we were heading,” Alaa Ali Salem said. “The roads suddenly became extremely congested, and while I was driving, the motorcycle overturned. My wife, my children and I were all injured.”
His family and thousands of others, in numbers leaping by the day, are now displaced as the Arab world’s poorest country faces a potential return to a devastating civil war.
The Associated Press on Saturday visited some of the newly displaced in Aden, a city under the control of Yemen’s internationally recognized government, as residents opened homes to them.
Children sprawled in crowded rooms of thin mattresses that were scattered with the few belongings grabbed in haste. A young girl clutched a smartphone. Crutches were propped against a wall. Worn-looking elders napped. A fan stirred the air on a day when temperatures reached into the 90s Fahrenheit.
Those fleeing have seen the front line of what the United Nations warns could be a return to a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Houthis’ advance to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea threatens a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has attacked some vessels during more than six months of war.
But on the ground in Yemen, the rebels’ offensive means something very different. It could bring the kind of upheaval that killed 150,000 people and caused near-famine before a 2022 ceasefire.
“This renewed war should alarm us all,” the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned as the Houthis moved south.
In Aden, a woman was in tears Saturday over what the ensuing chaos meant for her fragile family.
“We saw soldiers shouting for a retreat as bullets flew all around, and we had no idea what was happening. One of my sons had a motorcycle, so I told him to take his children and flee,” said Durrah Ali Hassan, who took shelter in a relative’s house.
She said she was worried about the toll on her pregnant daughter, who already had been bleeding. “I was so worried that roads might get blocked and that my daughter would die.” She was now in a coma at a hospital, her mother said.
In just days’ time, the International Organization for Migration has revised its number of displaced people by 30,000 more, saying at least 76,000 people now have fled since July as fighting escalated.
Iraq’s government confirmed that attacks that shut down a key Saudi oil pipeline on Thursday had originated from its territory. An umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in Iraq denied its involvement while praising the Houthis for their “ongoing battlefield victories against Saudi forces.”
Regional officials have told The Associated Press that the Houthis and the Iraqi militias recently coordinated attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
As the latest events threaten even higher global oil prices, U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran was “probably” responsible for the pipeline attack, but tried to calm concerns.
“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” Trump said. “They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through.” He said his administration has had “discussions” with the Houthis, but the White House didn’t say when. His administration engaged in at least one round of talks in May 2025.
“We are not in war with Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis have their own problems,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told India Today TV on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in India.
The Houthis are putting further pressure on neighboring Saudi Arabia, which backs the Yemen government fighting the rebels. While the Houthis have said they are only targeting Saudi shipping, oil markets remain wary.
Late on Saturday, the Saudi Civil Defense said a projectile fell in Al-Tawwal governorate near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The statement blamed the Houthis. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
As global shipping becomes even more challenged, Iran said a regional meeting is planned Monday between the foreign ministers of Gulf countries about talks between Tehran and Oman — located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz — on managing shipping there.
Commercial ship traffic remains low on what had been considered an international waterway before the war. Iran has expressed interest in having ships pay fees for transit. It has said traffic into the Persian Gulf would pass through Iranian waters, while the outbound route would pass partly through Iranian waters and partly through Oman’s.
But Iran has said reaching an agreement with Oman on the strait doesn’t mean it will open for shipping.
“The waterway would be opened up on the condition that the U.S. will terminate its blockade,” Iran’s president told the Indian broadcaster. The U.S. military on Saturday said its forces had redirected 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days.
Bahrain, however, said it will not attend any group meeting including Iran before the restoration of diplomatic relations between the countries.
