Remember that time a few years ago when few of us spared a thought for commercial shipping routes and strategic waterways? How times have changed. Now, you’d be forgiven for a sense of deja vu over the past few weeks as another strait has hit the headlines: the Bab al-Mandab strait in Yemen.

Last week, this narrow 50km stretch of water on Yemen’s south-western coast came under the control of Iran-backed Houthi forces. And according to Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, this is a big deal. “It’s the entrance between the Red Sea and Asia, in effect. So on one side of the waterway is Yemen and Saudi Arabia and on the other side are places such as Djibouti. So it is probably the second most important waterway for commercial shipping in the world.”

Annie Kelly hears how it’s a new front in the conflict between the US and Iran and their allies, which had looked like it was at an impasse. And as with the strait of Hormuz, what happens next with the Bab al-Mandab strait affects all of us. “If there is a real slowdown in commercial oil traffic through that strait, then you are going to see interest rates rise in Europe, you’re going to see unemployment rise, you’re going to see inflation rise,” says Patrick. “This is a war where the fronts move, and the front is going to move much closer to the European economy.”

• Houthis
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• Middle East and north Africa
• Yemen