{"id":18365,"date":"2026-07-28T12:48:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=18365"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:45:38","slug":"bab-el-mandeb-strait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bab-el-mandeb-strait\/","title":{"rendered":"Bab el-Mandeb Strait"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Bab el-Mandeb Strait Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bab el-Mandeb Strait has returned to the geopolitical spotlight after Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthi movement announced a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Bab el-Mandeb Strait<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also known as the <\/span><b>\u201cGate of Tears\u201d in Arabic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, referring to the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Location:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It lies at the southern tip of the <\/span><b>Red Sea,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between <\/span><b>Yemen <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>Horn of Africa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It <\/span><b>connects the Red Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the <\/span><b>Gulf of Aden<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and further to the Indian Ocean.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also separates Arabia, in the northeast, from the African continent, in the southwest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It further acts as a link between <\/span><b>the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The strait is 30 kilometers (KM) wide and is divided into two channels by the Yemeni island of <\/span><b>Perim,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with the eastern channel being called <\/span><b>Alexander\u2019s Strait<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while the western-lying <\/span><b>Dact-el-Mayun Channel.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Significance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is a crucial link in the trade route connecting the Mediterranean to Asia.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ships transporting goods between Europe and Asia, as well as Middle Eastern oil bound for Europe and North America, pass through it when using Egypt\u2019s Suez Canal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/with-houthi-blockade-on-saudi-arabia-bab-el-mandeb-returns-to-centre-stage\/article71273133.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bab el-Mandeb Strait is also known as the \u201cGate of Tears\u201d in Arabic, referring to the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":95548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6459],"class_list":["post-18365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-bab-el-mandeb-strait","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18365"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115667,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365\/revisions\/115667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}