Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, said on Saturday it had retaken control of Mukalla, the key eastern port and capital of Hadramout province, from United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed southern separatists who seized it last month.
Earlier in the day, a Yemeni government source told Turkish news agency Anadolu that Seiyun International Airport in Hadramout province was also retaken after fighters from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) withdrew from the facility.
The developments come as tensions have risen since Tuesday, after STC moved to expand its presence in Hadramout and neighbouring al-Mahra in early December. The two provinces make up nearly half of Yemen’s territory and border Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh, which supports the Southern Transitional Council (STC), has for the first time publicly accused Abu Dhabi of threatening its national security after earlier this week Saudi Arabia struck a shipment carrying combat vehicles that it said was bound for Yemen and linked to the UAE.
The escalation highlights a deepening split between the two former allies that are now openly confronting each other in Yemen, a decade after launching a joint military campaign there. While both countries originally intervened in Yemen to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels, they now back rival local forces with competing goals.
