At its southern end the Red Sea narrows to the Bab-el-Mandeb — the "Gate of Grief" — a strait barely 26 kilometres wide between Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Above it lies the Suez Canal. Together they form the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe, and in normal times carry close to 12% of all global trade.
Since late 2023, Yemen's Houthi movement has used missiles, drones, and small boats to attack merchant ships passing through the strait and the Gulf of Aden, framing the campaign as pressure over the war in Gaza. The result has been the largest disruption to global shipping since the pandemic: most container lines abandoned the Red Sea altogether and now send vessels the long way around the Cape of Good Hope — adding roughly ten days and thousands of kilometres to every Asia–Europe voyage.
The map traces the geography of that decision. The blue line is the route ships are avoiding; the gold line is the detour they take instead. Click any marker for detail, and toggle the layers to isolate the ports, the attack zone, or individual incidents.