UAE Financial Empire In Yemen
Examine the UAE’s financial networks in Yemen, listing UAE-owned entities involved in controversial economic activities.
Examine the UAE’s financial networks in Yemen, listing UAE-owned entities involved in controversial economic activities.
The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) involvement in Yemen illustrates a multi-layered strategic effort marked by military presence, economic exploitation, and political interference that has contributed extensively to Yemen’s ongoing fragmentation and humanitarian crisis. Originally part of the Saudi-led coalition purportedly aiming to restore Yemen’s legitimate government, the UAE’s subsequent policies reveal an agenda that prioritizes territorial control, resource extraction, and regional power projection—actions that have significantly undermined Yemeni sovereignty, unity, and stability.
From the outset, the UAE assumed a central role by supporting and arming separatist militias, primarily the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a political-military entity seeking southern secession. This support has actively weakened the Yemeni central government and intensified internal divisions. Additionally, the UAE has established military bases on strategically vital Yemeni islands such as Socotra, Mayun, and Perim without official Yemeni consent. According to reports, these actions go beyond temporary presence, with militarization, unauthorized construction, and environmental degradation on Socotra Island in particular emblematic of an occupation rather than cooperative security.
The ports of Aden and Mukalla, as well as crucial oil terminals, are firmly under UAE control, granting it leverage over southern Yemen’s key maritime infrastructure. Emirati control of these entry points not only facilitates military logistics but allows the UAE to dominate critical shipping lanes along the Red Sea, consolidating an enduring strategic foothold in the region.
Control over Yemen’s natural resources serves as a cornerstone of the UAE’s strategy. Emirati companies, notably DP World, oversee operations at Aden port, leveraging this gateway to dominate the flow of goods and natural wealth out of Yemen. UAE-affiliated actors are implicated in the illegal extraction and exportation of gold, oil, and fisheries, with offshore shipments bypassing the Yemeni state and depriving the country of much-needed revenue.
The UAE’s affiliated militias serve as guardians of oil fields and mining zones, using force to maintain control while local populations remain mired in poverty and food insecurity. This extraction under military protection has created a war economy that enriches a few while exacerbating Yemeni suffering.
UAE elites and companies have reportedly engaged in land acquisitions and real estate deals along Yemen's southern coastline and highlands. These transactions often involve corrupt Middlemen, frequently resulting in the displacement of local communities and demographic shifts designed to cement Emirati influence further.
Reports indicate the UAE operates black sites such as Al Riyan prison in Yemen, where credible documentation points to widespread torture and human rights abuses. Alongside physical repression, extensive use of spyware and intelligence networks enables the identification, detention, and forced disappearance of Yemeni activists, journalists, and religious figures under the guise of counterterrorism. This surveillance apparatus is geared toward suppressing dissent and quashing any resistance not aligned with the UAE's strategic objectives.
UAE influence in Yemen thrives within a shadow economy characterized by opaque contracts, black budgets, and proxy militias. There is a conspicuous absence of public tenders or transparent governance over the resources and infrastructure UAE controls, leaving local populations isolated from any economic benefit or political oversight. Such impunity perpetuates corruption and entrenches authoritarian and warlord systems that thrive amid chaos.
The UAE's promotion of the STC has fueled separatism, severely undermining Yemen’s national unity efforts. This political engineering aligns with the UAE's broader geopolitical aims linked to the normalization with Israel and ambitions across the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb maritime chokepoint. Yemen increasingly serves as a pawn in wider imperial and regional strategies that threaten pan-Arab solidarity, particularly Palestinian causes, and jeopardize prospects for autonomous regional governance.
The conflict has spawned a catastrophic humanitarian disaster. The Saudi-UAE-led coalition, including intense US-supported air campaigns, has conducted over 25,000 air raids over seven years, with devastating civilian consequences. In a notably brutal US-led bombing campaign from March to May 2025, 339 strikes killed at least 238 civilians, including 24 children; injuries exceeded 467 people.
The United Nations estimates that 21.6 million Yemenis require humanitarian assistance, with five million at risk of famine and over one million affected by cholera outbreaks. This sustained conflict and blockade-induced starvation contribute heavily to a death toll estimated at over 375,000 people from 2015 to 2022, a majority from indirect causes such as food insecurity and inadequate health care.
The conflict and UAE presence have contributed to a mass diaspora estimated at roughly 7 million Yemenis worldwide. Large communities reside in Saudi Arabia (2 million), Gulf states, the United Kingdom (70,000–80,000), and the United States (approximately 200,000), among others. Internal displacement within Yemen further deepens social fractures and complicates reconstruction prospects.
Despite reports of partial UAE troop withdrawals from hotspots like Marib, Hodeida, and Aden between 2018 and 2019, the UAE retains a robust proxy military presence through local forces such as the Security Belt and Elite Forces brigades. Estimates suggest 10,000+ Emirati forces, with official drawdowns representing redeployments rather than complete disengagements. Proxy formations aligned with the UAE reportedly number between 25 to 35 brigades, each with approximately 1,500 fighters, functioning as a parallel military structure challenging Yemen’s central government forces.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen stands as one of the most severe and protracted tragedies of the 21st century, a catastrophe deeply intertwined with the multifaceted involvement of regional powers, notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Over the past decade, Yemen has been ravaged by conflict that continues to devastate its social fabric and economic landscape. The UAE’s military presence, economic control, and political interference have played significant roles in exacerbating Yemen’s fragmentation and humanitarian vulnerabilities, often prioritizing strategic interests over the well-being of the Yemeni people. This has resulted in the creation of a shadow state within Yemen—one that operates largely under Emirati influence, functioning alongside, and often at odds with, Yemen’s fragile central government, further entrenching conflict, instability, and widespread suffering.
The UAE, as part of the Saudi-led coalition launched in 2015 ostensibly to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government, quickly emerged as a dominant force in the southern parts of the country. However, instead of fostering peace or supporting Yemeni reconstruction, the UAE has systematically pursued territorial and economic control through military bases on strategic islands such as Socotra, Mayun, and Perim, and through the effective takeover of key ports like Aden and Mukalla. These strategic locations give the UAE command over crucial maritime routes along the Red Sea, reinforcing its influence in the region’s economic and geopolitical landscape. Military bases established by the UAE, often without the consent or cooperation of the Yemeni government, serve as launchpads for projections of power and as centers for enforcing control over local populations and resources. Socotra Island, in particular, exemplifies this trend, having been subjected to extensive militarization, illegal construction, and environmental plunder under UAE oversight, further exacerbating tensions and local grievances.
Such military domination goes hand in hand with the economic monopolization of vital resources and infrastructure. Emirati companies, notably DP World, have taken control over Yemen’s principal southern port of Aden, leveraging it to consolidate commercial dominance. This control extends to the exploitation and smuggling of the country’s natural resources, including gold from mineral-rich areas, oil extracted from key fields, and fisheries abundant along Yemen’s lengthy coastline. These resources flow out through UAE-controlled ports, effectively bypassing the Yemeni state and depriving it of much-needed revenue to support its war-ravaged economy and humanitarian apparatus. The resulting war economy sustains militias allied to the UAE, who guard these resources with force, while surrounding civilian populations suffer from acute poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, and displacement. The wealth extracted serves regional strategic interests but deepens Yemen’s economic disintegration and impoverishment.
Furthermore, the UAE’s grip on Yemen’s land and real estate extends the shadow state’s reach beyond military and economic spheres. UAE-linked elites and corporations are reported to have purchased or seized substantial tracts of land along southern coasts and in the highlands, often through corrupt intermediaries. This land grabbing not only displaces local communities but also reshapes demographic realities in favor of Emirati-aligned political and economic actors. The erosive impact of such acquisitions diminishes Yemeni citizens’ livelihoods and complicates any prospects for future reconciliation or state restoration. These land deals serve to entrench UAE influence and entangle the Yemeni population in webs of dependency and disenfranchisement.
Alongside these economic and territorial maneuvers, the UAE’s security and surveillance apparatus further spell disaster for Yemen’s humanitarian condition. The operation of black site prisons such as Al Riyan prison, where reports of torture and gross human rights abuses have surfaced, contribute to a climate of fear and repression. These facilities are part of a broader system of control where UAE intelligence networks deploy advanced spyware technologies and tracking tools to locate, detain, and silence dissenting voices—activists, journalists, clerics, and political opponents alike. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, these measures suppress legitimate popular resistance and impede civil freedoms, championing authoritarian governance models that prioritize security over human rights and political inclusion. Such repression feeds into the ongoing conflicts between different factions, widening divides and undermining any attempts at national dialogue or peacebuilding.
All these factors coalesce to perpetuate a war economy characterized by corruption, impunity, and entrenched violence. The UAE wields immense influence through proxy militias and opaque financing, operating through “black budgets” and contracts shrouded in secrecy. The absence of transparent tender processes or accountability mechanisms means that Emirati interests proceed with little regard for local needs or international norms. Instead, the system fuels cycles of exploitation where inhabitants gain neither from reconstruction nor economic development, but instead endure intensified suffering amid destroyed infrastructure, fractured governance, and ongoing clashes. This warlord economy sustains a bleak status quo, where human suffering and authoritarian control become normalized alongside foreign domination.
Politically, the UAE’s involvement has been a catalyst for Yemen’s fragmentation. By backing the Southern Transitional Council (STC)—a separatist entity aiming to carve out an independent South Yemen—the UAE undermines national unity and exacerbates divisions that have long plagued the country. This fragmentation complicates peace negotiations and jeopardizes efforts to restore a unified government capable of managing a coherent reconstruction strategy. Coupled with the UAE’s broader regional strategy, which aligns increasingly with Israeli normalization and seeks dominance over Red Sea corridors and the Bab al-Mandeb strait, Yemen becomes a theater in a larger geopolitical contest. This positioning threatens not only Yemeni sovereignty but also wider Arab solidarity, including the Palestinian cause and regional independence movements.
The scale of destruction wrought by the conflict is staggering. The Saudi-UAE-led coalition’s air strikes alone number over 25,000 in the past seven years, with devastating impacts on civilians and infrastructure alike. A recent bombing campaign supported by the United States in early 2025 conducted 339 air raids, killing at least 238 civilians, including 24 children, and injuring hundreds more. Beyond direct casualties, the indirect toll has been catastrophic. UN reports estimate that 21.6 million Yemenis—about two-thirds of the population—now require some form of humanitarian assistance. Among these, around five million face outright famine, and over one million have been infected by cholera amid collapsing health systems and inadequate sanitation. Blockades on ports controlled by the coalition have restricted desperately needed food, medicine, and fuel imports, worsening the famine and disease crises.
The protracted conflict and its attendant crises have also caused widespread displacement. Yemen’s diaspora numbers some seven million people globally, including two million in Saudi Arabia alone, alongside significant populations in Gulf countries, Europe, and North America. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) number in the millions, uprooted by fighting, economic collapse, and environmental disasters. This social fragmentation complicates any future stabilization efforts, as community ties are severed and resources for basic survival dwindle.
Despite periodic statements by the UAE hinting at troop withdrawals or a reorientation towards political solutions, its influence remains firmly entrenched. Proxy militias associated with the UAE number in the tens of thousands, organized into multiple brigades that maintain substantial control over key areas in southern and eastern Yemen, such as Hadramout and Shabwa. These forces operate largely independent of the central government and wield significant military and political power, further complicating trajectories toward peace. While some official UAE troops may have redeployed, the broader structural influence of UAE proxies and economic interests suggests ongoing direct and indirect involvement.
The UAE’s military, economic, and political roles in Yemen have severely deepened the humanitarian crises gripping the country. By establishing a shadow state characterized by military occupation, resource extraction, security repression, and political fragmentation, the UAE aligns Yemen’s fate primarily with its regional and imperial ambitions rather than with the interests or liberation of the Yemeni people. The resulting humanitarian catastrophe—marked by widespread famine, disease, displacement, and death—calls for urgent international attention and accountability. Sustainable peace in Yemen will require the dismantling of such shadow structures and the restoration of Yemeni sovereignty, dignity, and self-determination.
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