Al-Mahra governorate is located in the far southeastern part of Yemen and shares a nearly 300-km border with Oman to the east, and another with Saudi Arabia in the north. Although the second largest Yemeni governorate with more than 67,000 km2, al-Mahra is the least populated governorate in mainland Yemen, with a population of about 175,600.[1] The al-Mahra Governorate’s capital of Ghaydah lies on the southern Arabian Sea coastline, where also the main seaport of Nishtun is located.

Due to its remote location, al-Mahra has been largely isolated from the wider conflict. However, it played a significant role in security concerns for the Sultanate of Oman in the 1980s, during the separatist rebellion in Oman’s western Dhofar. However, in recent years, the region has come under Saudi and Emirati influence with both Gulf countries maintaining de facto occupation forces in both al-Mahra and the offshore island of Socatra since 2018.[2] Al-Mahra’s relative avoidance of the wider Yemeni conflict has seen it transform into a flashpoint.[3]

In addition to seizing al-Ghadrah Airport, in al-Mahra’s capital, Sudi forces presently maintain at least 20 military bases throughout the governorate.[4] Without published spatial data, only conservative estimates are possible, assuming that these points average at least one dunum (1,000 m2), totaling some 21,000 m2.

[1] United Nations OCHA, “2023 Population Estimates,” 2023, https://data.humdata.org/dataset/yemen-population-estimates.

[3] Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Adel al-Hasani, “Americans Are Quietly Supporting A Saudi Land Grab In Yemen,” Huffington Post (23 February 2023), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/yemen-mahra-saudi_n_63ee5d3ee4b022eb3e354a6c.

[4] Yahya al-Sewari, “Yemen’s Al-Mahra: From Isolation to the Eye of a Geopolitical Storm,” The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies (5 July 2019), https://sanaacenter.org/publications/analysis/7606.

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