Tribal militias backed by Saudi Arabia are ramping up deployments across Yemen’s eastern Hadhramaut province as tensions escalate with the UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council, signaling a sharp intensification of a long-simmering proxy rivalry over strategic territory and energy resources.

Video footage circulating online shows armed convoys affiliated with the Saudi-backed Hadramaut Tribal Alliance moving through desert terrain at night, underscoring a heightened state of readiness as forces seek to counter recent STC advances. The deployments follow the STC’s seizure of key oil facilities in Hadhramaut on December 2, 2025, a move widely viewed as an attempt to consolidate economic and political leverage in the resource-rich region.

Clashes between the rival factions erupted on December 25, leaving at least 22 people dead and raising alarms about broader instability in eastern Yemen, an area previously spared the worst of the country’s decade-long conflict. In response, Saudi Arabia reportedly conducted airstrikes near STC positions and issued a formal warning demanding a withdrawal, reflecting Riyadh’s determination to block further expansion by UAE-aligned forces.

The confrontation has also reverberated politically. Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council moved to cancel a defense agreement with the UAE on December 30, highlighting growing internal fractures and the increasing difficulty of balancing relationships among coalition partners nominally aligned against the Houthis.

The escalation in Hadhramaut illustrates how Yemen’s conflict continues to fragment, with shifting alliances and competing foreign backers turning local disputes into flashpoints. As Saudi- and UAE-backed forces test each other’s red lines, the risk of a wider destabilization of Yemen’s east is rising, complicating any prospects for a durable national settlement.