The war in Yemen has escalated again, displacing at least 100,000 people. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

The lightning advance of Houthi militants along the west coast of Yemen over the past week has prompted fears of a spiralling conflict in the region and a new oil supply crisis. For families living in the Middle East's poorest country, the most significant fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces in years is a crisis upon a catastrophe, with escalating civilian casualties and at least 100,000 displaced in recent days.

Houthi fighters have captured strategic islands across a critical Red Sea trade route, the Bab al-Mandab strait, one of the most important shipping routes in the world – almost 15% of global sea trade passes through it. The strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas transited in peacetime, has remained largely blocked since the US and Israel launched airstrikes in February, so the prospect of Iran and its allies exerting pressure on two maritime choke points has global implications. The price of crude oil has already begun to spike.

For today's newsletter, I spoke to Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House, about this new and dangerous dimension to the ongoing war in Yemen, and why fears over oil and global trade must not overshadow the plight of ordinary Yemenis.

Roots of the conflict

The current escalation of violence in Yemen has its roots in a civil war that broke out in 2014 between the Yemeni army and the Houthi movement, which champions Yemen's Shia Muslim minority. A year later, the Houthis – part of Iran's "axis of resistance", a loose coalition of armed groups that includes Hamas and Hezbollah – toppled the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Al-Muslimi grew up in a remote mountain village in Yemen, where his family made honey, one of the country's most lucrative and popular exports. His mother used to tease him because the bees didn't recognise him after he spent long periods studying away from home – he was the only person in his family who had to wear a beekeeping suit.

Al-Muslimi now writes about how the years-long internecine conflict has had a devastating impact on the honey trade and the farmers who tend Yemeni bees. At least 150,000 people have been killed since 2014, mainly through aerial bombardment by the Saudi-backed coalition that supports the Yemeni government, which has resumed this week. About 4.5 million people – the population of Birmingham and Greater Manchester combined – have already been displaced by fighting over the past decade, while the UN estimates that more than 18.2 million – twice the population of London – are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

The situation now is "worse than 2015", says Al-Muslimi, with global attention diverted to crises in Syria, Sudan, and Ukraine and now focused on oil prices and regional consequences. "There is even less willingness to help civilians."

After the Houthis captured the port city of Mocha, birthplace of the global coffee trade, last week, Al-Muslimi heard local media reports of more than 240 pregnant women ready to give birth without accessible healthcare.

"It's absolutely nuts," he says. "This is a country that was already suffering so many things, including indifference."

How has the conflict escalated in the past week?

It has been plain for months to Yemen-watchers that the Houthis were preparing for a significant offensive, says al-Muslimi. This erupted about a week ago with the militants seizing control of parts of the west coast and gaining a hold over the Bab al-Mandab strait, including the strategic port of Mocha and key islands of Perim, Greater and Lesser Hanish in the 20-mile stretch of water that forms a natural chokepoint on the trade route connecting Asia with Europe.

With government supporters in disarray, the degree of division among anti-Houthi forces is complicating the fight back. The Houthis have achieved what Al-Muslimi calls "the most consequential change in territorial control in Yemen for years".

Since then, the Houthis have claimed responsibility for missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, including the bombing of a critical facility.