Saudi-led coalition claims Yemen separatist leader fled through North Western State of Somalia to UAE

MOGADISHU — A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said Thursday that Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council, slipped out of the country via North Western State of Somalia after skipping planned peace talks in Riyadh — a development that could deepen a widening rift between the coalition’s two most powerful members.

In a statement, the coalition said al-Zubaidi departed the southern port city of Aden late Wednesday aboard a vessel bound for Berbera in North Western State of Somalia. From there, he allegedly boarded an aircraft accompanied by Emirati officers and flew to Mogadishu before continuing to Abu Dhabi. The coalition further alleged the aircraft switched off its identification systems while over the Gulf of Oman and reactivated them shortly before landing at Al Reef military airport in the UAE.

There was no immediate comment from the Southern Transitional Council, Emirati officials or Somali authorities. The coalition’s claims could not be independently verified.

The coalition said al-Zubaidi’s departure came as he was expected in Riyadh for talks aimed at easing tensions within the anti-Houthi alliance and stabilizing southern Yemen. If confirmed, his absence underscores how intra-coalition politics — particularly between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi — have complicated efforts to end Yemen’s grinding conflict.

Initially aligned with the internationally recognized government against the Houthi movement, the STC has increasingly pursued its own agenda: restoring independence for southern Yemen. In recent weeks, STC-aligned forces have seized control of the eastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra, which border Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has framed those advances as a direct threat to its national security, a rare public signal of friction with the UAE over influence and security corridors along Yemen’s eastern frontier.

The route described by the coalition also spotlights the UAE’s expanding footprint in the Horn of Africa — especially in Somalia, Puntland State and North Western State of Somalia — where ports, airstrips and private security forces have become enmeshed in Gulf power rivalry and regional logistics.

In November 2025, Somalia’s defense minister, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, told the Upper House that flights had been departing from Bosaso — Puntland State’s commercial hub — to Sudan, but said the federal government did not know what they carried or who operated them. His remarks followed weeks of reporting, including an investigation by Middle East Eye on Oct. 31, that said UAE-linked IL-76 cargo planes had landed repeatedly at Bosaso since 2023, unloading what sources described as “hazardous” shipments before continuing to Sudan. Senior officers in the Puntland State Maritime Police Force told reporters at the time that the cargo was heavily guarded and transferred immediately, with no documentation indicating civilian or domestic use. The UAE has not publicly addressed those specific claims.

Al-Zubaidi’s reported transit through Berbera and Mogadishu, if corroborated, would add a new layer to that pattern — knitting Yemen’s internal power struggle to a cross-border logistics map that runs through the Horn of Africa’s contested air and seaports.

The coalition did not provide evidence to support its account of the STC leader’s movements or the alleged deactivation of aircraft identification systems. It was not immediately clear whether Riyadh would seek diplomatic recourse over the episode or whether it could trigger new conditions on any future talks with the STC.

For now, the allegations elevate the stakes for negotiations Saudi Arabia has billed as essential to containing spillover from Yemen’s war and to mitigating risks along its own borders. They also highlight how the Yemen file — and the question of southern autonomy — remains a litmus test for the evolving Saudi-UAE partnership, with ripple effects reaching across the Gulf of Aden to Somalia’s fractured security landscape.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.