The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of seven emirates in the Persian Gulf, rejected allegations that it operates secret detention sites in southern Yemen, the conflict-hit country on the Arabian Peninsula.
The denial followed claims by officials aligned with the internationally recognised Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Kingdom that shares a long border with Yemen and has led a military coalition in the war since 2015.
In a statement, the UAE defence ministry described the accusations as “deliberate fabrications” and a “blatant attempt to advance political agendas at the expense of truth”.
Okay News reports that the allegations surfaced after a fresh round of tensions between camps supported by the UAE and Saudi Arabia in southern Yemen, highlighting growing strains between the two Gulf powers that once fought side by side in the war.
Officials in Hadramawt, a large province in eastern Yemen, made the claim on Monday, 19 January 2026, after clashes between forces supported by Abu Dhabi and those aligned with Riyadh. The violence, according to the account, contributed to Abu Dhabi withdrawing its remaining troops from Yemen.
The rivalry has been linked to competing alliances on the ground. Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the conflict in 2015 to fight the Houthi movement, an armed group that controls much of northern Yemen and is widely regarded by regional governments as aligned with Iran, but the two Gulf partners later supported different factions in the south.
The dispute intensified after an advance last month by UAE-backed separatist forces in Hadramawt and Mahra provinces was pushed back by Saudi air strikes and allied ground forces.
Hadramawt’s governor, speaking to foreign media invited by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), said “a number of secret prisons used by Emirati forces” had been uncovered.
The UAE defence ministry responded that the “facilities referred to are merely military accommodation, operations rooms and fortified shelters, some of which are located underground”.
“The attempt to implicate the United Arab Emirates in such allegations raises serious questions about the true motives and parties behind the promotion of these falsehoods,” the statement added.
Saudi Arabia has been seeking to strengthen its influence in areas of southern Yemen controlled by the Yemeni government, while northern parts of the country, including areas where most of Yemen’s population lives, remain under Houthi control.
