Bab el Mandeb

[bahb el mahn-deb]

noun

1. a strait between the Eritrea-Djibouti border area on the Horn of Africa and the southwestern tip of Yemen, connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. About 20 mi. (32 km) wide.

Bab el Mandeb

/ ˈbæb ɛl ˈmændɛb /

noun

1. a strait between SW Arabia and E Africa, connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bab el Mandeb¹

First recorded in 1790–95; from Arabic: literally, “Gate of Tears”

Example Sentences

The MT Strinda was attacked in the Bab El Mandeb strait at the entrance to the Red Sea.

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The Bab El Mandeb Strait is a 20-mile wide channel that separates Eritrea and Djibouti on the African side from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.

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They took place just north of the strategic chokepoint of the Bab El Mandeb Strait, a 20-mile wide channel that separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula and through which about 17,000 ships and 10% of global trade pass every year.

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Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the Pentagon has developed a specific plan, and the U.S. military’s main role would be to provide “maritime domain awareness” – intelligence and surveillance information – to the ships of coalition partners that would conduct patrols in vulnerable waterways like the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman, as well as the Bab el Mandeb, a heavily trafficked strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.

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Every day, giant tankers carrying up to five million barrels of oil products pass through the strait of Bab el Mandeb, an 18-mile gap separating the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa.

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