Bab-El-Mandeb Strait

Dec. 20, 2023

India needs to work on finding alternate trade routes in the sea, as heavy reliance on the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait could impact the country's trade with the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, economic think tank GTRI said recently.

About the Bab-El-Mandeb Strait:

It is a strait of great strategic and economic importance, connecting the Red Sea in the northwest to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in the southeast.
It also separates Arabia, in the northeast, from the African continent, in the southwest.
It further acts as a link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
The name of the strait, Bab El-Mandeb means “Gate of Tears” in Arabic, referring to the large number of shipwrecks that have occurred in this region.
The strait is 30 kilometres (KM) wide and is divided into two channels by the Yemeni island of Perim, with the eastern channel being called Alexander’s Strait and is around 3 kilometres wide, while the western-lying Dact-el-Mayun Channel is 26 kilometres wide.
The flow through this strait provides for the circulation between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, since no flow takes place through the Suez Canal.