Oceans Dire Straits

May 2, 2024
The Bab al-Mandab Strait

The Bab-al-Mandeb Strait

A close up of the globe with lines drawn on it

The most fiery and lethal of today’s shipping lanes: The Bab-al Mandeb Strait lying in between Africa’s east coast countries of Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea famous for new age piracy and the other Yemen’s Houthi rebels is the only access point connecting the Red Sea & Indian Ocean enroute to the *Suez Canal (it’s own issues, we’ll cover that).

The Strait, at it’s narrowest point is 26 kilometers wide. That equates to about a two mile stretch for inbound and outbound cargo. Regardless of navy escort and shelling the Houthi’s of Yemen have blocked access to the Red Sea forcing vessels to reroute to the old sailing days before the Suez Canal existed.

The top picture shows the passage thru the Indian Ocean and Red Sea to the Suez Canal. That voyage supposing from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Bremerhaven, Germany typically takes twenty to twenty five days average. The lower picture shows the roundabout way around the Cape of Good Hope – Horn of Africa onwards to Atlantic Ocean adding ten to 15 days and 6,500kilometers (4,000 miles).

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