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Why did attacks on ships in the Red Sea disrupt Suez Canal traffic?

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Cargo ships travel along the wide Suez Canal in Egypt, bordered by sandy desert on one side and greenery on the other. — Suez Canal Ships in the Suez Canal in Egypt. One of the world's most important shipping lanes, the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthi movement, an Islamic fundamentalist group based in Yemen, disrupted Suez Canal traffic because they forced commercial shipping companies to divert their vessels away from the Red Sea route.123

These attacks, which began in 2023, targeted commercial vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea. By creating a dangerous environment for maritime transit, the violence led companies to avoid the region entirely, resulting in a sharp decline in canal transits—dropping to about 48 percent of 2023 levels by 2025—and a significant loss of revenue for Egypt. Although the attacks paused in October 2025, persistent fears of renewed violence have continued to disrupt trade across this critical global artery.321