Houthis Escalate Threats in the Red Sea

Yemen's Houthi militias are attacking commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, and say the attacks will continue until Israel ends its "crimes in Gaza."

The attacks have evolved into indiscriminate assaults, which have caused an escalating armed exchange in the Red Sea and its environs, and the potential exists for escalation into a more extensive geographical conflict.

Shipping routes across the ocean are vital to international commerce. According to the International Chamber of Shipping, sea transport accounts for 30 percent of all shipping containers and 90 percent of all global trade in goods, worth $14 trillion USD. The Red Sea, via the Suez Canal, is not only one of the most travelled commerce routes in the world, but it is also the quickest and shortest sea route between Asia and Europe.

The Suez Canal facilitates the passage of approximately 17,000 vessels annually, representing approximately 12 percent of worldwide commerce or nearly $1 trillion USD worth of merchandise, including crude and refined oil, electronics, sneakers, wheat, and electronics.

The military confrontations in the Red Sea may be interpreted as a continuation of the Israel-Hamas dispute, encompassing significant non-state and state actors in the area and superseding national borders.

In light of escalating Houthi attacks targeting major commercial shipping through the Red Sea, some major shipping companies have decided to avoid the dangerous conflict zone in favor of much longer and more expensive but comparably safer routes around the continent of Africa.

One of the additional risks represented by other routes around Africa is the growing threat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and elsewhere along the coast of southwest Africa.

Significant financial repercussions have resulted from the Houthi attacks and the responses of businesses. As major oil companies avoid the Red Sea, crude oil prices have risen by 3 percent.