Пролив Баб-эль-Мандеб: Географическое положение и стратегическое значение

Strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa

The Bab el Mandeb (Arabic: باب المندب, , ), the Gate of Grief or the Gate of Tears, is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and by extension the Indian Ocean.

The strait derives its name from the dangers attending its navigation or, according to an Arab legend, from the numbers who were drowned by an earthquake that separated the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa. In "Bab el Mandeb", "Bab" means "gate" while "Mandeb" means "lamentation" or "grief".

The distance across is about from Ras Menheli in Yemen to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. The island of Perim divides the strait into two channels, of which the eastern, known as the Bab Iskender (Alexander's Strait), is wide and deep, while the western, or Dact el Mayun, has a width of and a depth of Near the coast of Djibouti lies a group of smaller islands known as the "Seven Brothers". There is a surface current inwards in the eastern channel, but a strong undercurrent outwards in the western channel. While the narrow width of the strait requires vessels to travel through the territorial sea of adjacent states, under the purview of Article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the legal concept of transit passage applies to Bab el Mandeb, although Eritrea (unlike the rest of coastal countries) is not a party to the convention. Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes that are critical to global energy security. The Bab el Mandeb Strait is wide at its narrowest point, limiting tanker traffic to two 2 mile wide channels for inbound and outbound shipments. This rose by 2014 to 5.1 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil, condensate and refined petroleum products headed toward Europe, the United States, and Asia, then an estimated 6.2 b/d by 2018. Total petroleum flows through the Bab el Mandeb Strait accounted for about 9% of total seaborne traded petroleum (crude oil and refined petroleum products) in 2017. About 3.6 million b/d moved north toward Europe; another 2.6 million b/d flowed in the opposite direction mainly to Asian markets such as Singapore, China, and India. During the last 100,000 years, eustatic sea level fluctuations have led to alternate opening and closing of the straits. According to the recent single origin hypothesis, the straits of Bab el Mandeb were probably witness to the earliest migrations of modern humans. It is presumed that the oceans were then much lower and the straits were much shallower or dry, which allowed a series of emigrations along the southern coast of Asia. According to Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church tradition, the straits of Bab el Mandeb were witness to the earliest migrations of Semitic Ge'ez speakers into Africa, occurring c. no – c. 1900 BC, roughly around the same time as the Hebrew patriarch Jacob. The Kingdom of Aksum was a major regional power in the Horn of Africa. It extended its rule across the strait with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom shortly before the rise of Islam. The British East India Company unilaterally seized the island of Perim in 1799 on behalf of its Indian empire. The government of Britain asserted its ownership in 1857 and erected a lighthouse there in 1861, using it to command the Red Sea and the trade routes through the Suez Canal. The British presence continued until 1967 when the island became part of the People's Republic of South Yemen. Before the handover, the British government had put forward before the United Nations a proposal for the island to be internationalized as a way to ensure the continued security of passage and navigation in the Bab el Mandeb, but this was refused. In 2008 a company owned by Tarek bin Laden unveiled plans to build a bridge named Bridge of the Horns across the strait, linking Yemen with Djibouti. Middle East Development LLC issued a notice to construct a bridge passing across the Red Sea that would be the longest suspended passing in the world. The project was assigned to engineering company COWI in collaboration with architect studio Dissing+Weitling, both from Denmark. It was announced in 2010 that Phase 1 had been delayed; however, as of mid 2016, nothing more has been heard about the project.

The Bab el Mandeb is also a sub region in the Arab League, which includes Djibouti, Yemen, and Eritrea.

Bab el Mandeb: Country Area(km2) Population(2016 est.) Population density(per km2) Capital GDP (PPP) $M USD GDP per capita (PPP) $ USD Yemen 527,829 27,392,779 51.9 Sana'a $58,202 $2,249 Eritrea 117,600 6,380,803 54.3 Asmara $9.121 $1,314 Djibouti 23,200 846,687 36.5 Djibouti City $3.327 $3,351 Total 668,629 34,620,269 51.8 / km2 Various $70,650 $1,841