Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
Salem Al-Khanbashi, a member of Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council and Governor of Hadramawt, accused the United Arab Emirates of operating secret prisons inside Hadramawt Governorate, confirming that a large number of them had been discovered. He also reported finding quantities of explosives inside the Al-Riyan Airport military camp in the city of Mukalla.
Speaking at a press conference held in Mukalla, Al-Khanbashi said that the UAE had “exploited the cover of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy to advance its own agendas,” adding: “We believed the UAE would be a supporter and a help to us, but we were shocked by its actions.”
He explained that the explosives found at the Al-Riyan Airport camp were—according to him—prepared to target the people of Hadramawt and carry out assassination operations. He noted that the governorate had suffered in recent years from armed groups affiliated with Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, which he said received Emirati support.
Al-Khanbashi accused those groups of committing violations against citizens, terrorizing residents, and looting and stealing the headquarters of state institutions, stressing that Hadramawt “has been liberated from the domination of Aidarous Al-Zubaidi and Emirati hegemony.”
The Governor of Hadramawt stated that this phase had been brought to an end with the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, affirming that local authorities would take all legal measures to hold perpetrators of abuses accountable and support the victims, and that justice would be enforced and the law would take its course without exception.
These accusations came after Saudi Arabia’s recent intervention to free the governorates of Hadramawt and Al-Mahra from the control of the Southern Transitional Council, in an effort to consolidate legitimate authority and restore the Yemeni state to areas that had effectively been outside its control.
