Riyadh tightens its grip on Yemen's southeast through land grabs, oil theft, and the erasure of contested borderlands.
The Cradle
The only change is that Riyadh is no longer sharing control with Abu Dhabi. Now, it wants the whole cake – under the pretext of restoring order and eliminating chaos.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s cabinet approved a memorandum of geological cooperation with Yemen. While framed in neutral, bureaucratic language, the move signals a new phase of resource control. Geology is the gateway to oil, gas, and rare minerals. Whoever draws the maps holds tomorrow’s economy.
The impact was immediate. In Al-Kharkheer, on the edge of the Rub' al-Khali (Empty Quarter), clashes broke out. Shortly after, the area vanished from Google Maps in an apparent digital prelude to territorial annexation.
At the same time, Riyadh deepened its presence, imposing administrative and military orders in strategic locations such as Al-Rayyan Airport, bringing in loyal forces, and pushing into Hadhramaut with heavy equipment. The Saudi-backed formations began displacing any unit not aligned with their agenda.
Border clashes unmask Riyadh’s strategy
The Al-Kharkheer border zone, between Al-Mahra and Hadhramaut, became the first testing ground for Riyadh’s solo phase in southern Yemen. Homeland Shield forces, loyal to Saudi Arabia, entered territory claimed by Hadhrami tribes. Resistance followed.
Backed by Riyadh, the Samouda tribes attempted to push out the Manahil from key positions, igniting intra-tribal clashes. These tensions mirrored earlier flare-ups in January, when Homeland Shield attempted to install new military outposts following the withdrawal of UAE-aligned Southern Transitional Council (STC) units.
Riyadh responded with a PR push. It convened meetings that brought together a member of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and the governor of Hadhramaut, along with tribal sheikhs of Al-Manahil.
The resulting statement blamed unnamed “external actors” – a transparent jab at the UAE. Pro-Saudi outlets followed up by accusing “tribal armed groups affiliated with Sheikh Khalid bin Tanaf al-Menhali, who is close to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed [MbZ], of fomenting chaos and creating tension in the border strip.”
Homeland Shield denied any tribal buildup and insisted it represented state authority. It called on tribes to comply with orders, claiming, “the enemy is one.” But Hadhramaut’s tribal authority condemned the presence of outside forces, and the Manahil issued a 48-hour ultimatum demanding withdrawal.
Al-Kharkheer wiped from digital maps
The most consequential development came when Saudi Arabia reportedly asked Google to erase the Yemeni border villages of Al-Kharkheer from digital maps. The request coincided with new military deployments. Activists saw it as preparation for a land grab.
They warned that the move aimed to erase a strategic oil-rich village in the Hadhramaut Valley. Some urged legal action before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Riyadh and its proxy government in Yemen of colluding to steal land.
But the facts on the ground revealed other secrets. Videos circulated showing Homeland Shield soldiers siphoning Yemeni oil out of the area, sparking widespread anger and forcing Riyadh to issue orders to withdraw immediately. The event resulted in the dismissal of 300 soldiers and the arrest of others who had uncovered the transfers from giant tanks in the desert, in an attempt to reset forces and control the situation.
Who claims Al-Kharkheer?
Al-Kharkheer lies at the intersection of Yemen, Oman, and Saudi Arabia – about 16,000 square kilometers in the Empty Quarter. It has long been inhabited by Mahri and Hadhrami tribes, each with their own claims.
The people of Al-Mahra cite pre-1967 maps, British-era treaties, Saleh-era government letters, and local documents. The Samouda Hadhramiyya, on the other hand, refers to pre-Islamic ties and British maps backing Hadhramaut’s claim.
Saudi Arabia, for its part, cites the 2000 Jeddah Treaty, after which it dissolved Al-Kharkheer Governorate in 2014 and folded the land into Najran (historically also part of Yemen). It then erected a barrier deep inside Yemen’s border.
Speaking to The Cradle, Ali Mubarak Mohammed of the Peaceful Sit-in Committee in Al-Mahra, says:
“The desert areas extending from Al-Kharkheer and Budaiya through Khor Dhahiya and Khor Bin Hamouda to the Yemeni–Omani–Saudi triangle are historically Mahri lands, documented by ancient maps before 1967 and by the agreements signed in the name of the Sultanate of Al-Mahra.”
He adds:
“What happened later was administrative cuts in stages, starting with the transfer of districts such as Thamud and Armah, then the entire desert strip, and the separation of Al-Mahra from its border contact with Saudi Arabia and its annexation to Hadhramaut province under the name of an administrative division, which is an unacceptable and unfair division.”
Mubarak further emphasizes that the movement of Homeland Shield forces from Al-Mahra to the border and their assumption of positions from emergency units under Saudi command sparked local opposition. Some tribal factions and Hadhramaut authorities rejected the deployment, leading to confrontations.
He attributes the unrest to a buildup of political and administrative failures, warning against efforts to reframe the crisis as a tribal or regional conflict. Such narratives, he argues, serve external interests and threaten the social cohesion of Mahri and Hadhrami communities.
A military zone built on forced displacement
After the 2015 war on Yemen began, Riyadh turned Al-Kharkheer into a military zone. Border markers were moved 60 kilometers into Yemeni territory. By 2019, the population was about 12,000, before the governorate was completely abandoned and its buildings demolished and turned into a logistics hub for oil projects.
Al-Mahra’s people remain disenfranchised. Many are still deprived of their basic rights, and many live on temporary ID cards, while some have not obtained citizenship despite previous compensation. In 2020, the tribes filed legal demands to restore their rights to Al-Kharkheer, threatening to return to their lands if their demands were not met.
A local activist tells The Cradle the recent clashes are part of a longer pattern. He says Riyadh is backing Samouda forces against the Manahil to fragment communities and cloak its oil grab in tribal infighting:
“Riyadh is not satisfied with what it previously captured in Al-Kharkheer, Al-Wadiah, Sharura, and Al-Shaybah, but is now expanding towards Hadhramaut, Shabwa, and Al-Mahra, using misleading political slogans such as the outcomes of dialogue and autonomy to redraw the southern geography in a way that serves its expansionist ambitions and aborts the right of southerners to their independent state.”
He adds that British maps confirm Al-Kharkheer and nearby territories belong to the Sultanate of Al-Kathiri and Hadhramaut, framing Riyadh’s project as a long-standing colonial-style expansion.
The pipeline plan
Since the 1990s, Saudi Arabia has sought to run an oil pipeline through Yemen’s east to the Arabian Sea. Initial attempts failed. But the 2015 war revived the idea, especially as the Strait of Hormuz became vulnerable.
In late 2017, Saudi forces expanded construction and marker placement near Tawf Shahr – part of a broader push into Al-Mahrah that included deploying troops around Al‑Ghaydah Airport – prompting Mahri tribes to uproot the markers and assert local opposition to foreign projects.
The new plan extends from Al-Kharkheer to Nishtun Port, and reflects Riyadh's quest to compete with Emirati influence, and to benefit from the lower cost of a direct pipeline route linking the oil fields in the east of the Kingdom to the Arabian Sea.
Geological reports suggest huge oil reserves from Al-Kharkheer to Thamud. The late former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh began drilling in 2000, but Riyadh halted the work by offering to fund the Yemeni army. It then began offering compensation and citizenship to evacuate residents.
Adnan Bawazir, head of the Southern National Rescue Council, tells The Cradle that Saudi Arabia began its gradual and silent march about 40 years ago, before the border demarcation agreement at the end of Saleh's era, and is still gnawing away at more territory within the same extension, taking advantage of the status of southern Yemen as a permissible area.
From Jizan, Najran, and Asir, through Al-Wadiah and Sharurah to the oil-rich Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia has expanded steadily – building airports, deploying military infrastructure, and establishing exploration hubs.
Now, with the pipeline project extending from Al-Kharkheer to the Arabian Sea, Riyadh is laying the foundation for a vast energy corridor that cuts through more than two-thirds of Yemen’s eastern territory.
The route grants Riyadh unprecedented leverage over mineral-rich lands and strategic chokepoints – tools to redraw the region’s map of power and influence.
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