The United Arab Emirates has dismissed accusations of operating secret prisons in southern Yemen, as allegations from Saudi-backed Yemeni officials expose widening cracks within the coalition fighting the country’s protracted war.
The claims emerged from Yemen’s Hadramawt province amid intensifying rivalry between Saudi- and Emirati-backed forces, exposing growing fractures within the coalition that intervened in Yemen’s conflict in 2015 to fight Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.
On Monday, Hadramawt Governor Mabkhout bin Madi told foreign media organisations invited by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government that “a number of secret prisons used by Emirati forces” had been uncovered in the province. He alleged that the facilities were concealed and operated outside the authority of the internationally recognised government.
The remarks followed recent clashes in southern Yemen between forces aligned with Riyadh and those backed by Abu Dhabi, confrontations that ultimately prompted the United Arab Emirates to withdraw its remaining troops from the country.
In a swift response, the UAE defence ministry rejected the accusations as “deliberate fabrications” and “a blatant attempt to advance political agendas at the expense of truth.”
“The facilities referred to are merely military accommodation, operations rooms and fortified shelters, some of which are located underground,” the minister said.
“The attempt to implicate the United Arab Emirates in such allegations raises serious questions about the true motives behind the promotion of these falsehoods,” the minister added.
The dispute comes after a failed advance last month by UAE-backed southern separatists in Hadramawt and Mahra provinces, an operation that was pushed back by Saudi air strikes and allied ground forces, marking a turning point in the struggle for influence in southern Yemen.
Recall that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates once the closest partners in the Gulf-led coalition joined forces in 2015 to restore Yemen’s internationally recognised government after Houthi rebels seized large swathes of the country. Over time, their interests diverged, with Abu Dhabi backing southern separatist groups while Riyadh continued to support the central government.
Saudi Arabia is now seeking to consolidate control in areas held by the recognised government in southern Yemen, while northern regions,home to most of the population remain under Houthi control, underscoring how the war has increasingly been shaped by rivalry among former allies.