Yemen

By Zayyad I. Muhammad 

During President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official visit to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the 2026 edition of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), Nigeria announced that it will co-host Investopia with the UAE in Lagos, Nigeria, in February. The initiative aims to attract global investors and accelerate sustainable investment inflows into Nigeria.

Nigeria has also concluded a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the UAE to deepen cooperation across key sectors, including renewable energy, infrastructure, logistics, and digital trade. The agreement is expected to significantly strengthen trade relations and deliver tangible benefits for Nigerian businesses, professionals, and workers.

Overall, this expanding trade and economic relationship between Nigeria and the UAE represents a welcome development for both countries, with the potential to drive growth, job creation, and long-term economic collaboration.

However, on the international security front, the UAE is increasingly viewed through a more complex lens. Over the past decade, the country has pursued a more assertive foreign policy, particularly in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

The UAE has faced allegations and scrutiny from some governments, international organisations, media outlets, human rights groups, and analysts regarding its involvement in conflict-affected and politically fragile environments. These debates often centre on whether UAE actions have influenced or intensified existing crises, especially in several Muslim-majority countries.

In Sudan, various reports have alleged that the UAE was involved in the supply of weapons, including drones, to actors in the ongoing conflict. Some accounts claim that arms transfers were routed through neighbouring countries such as Chad, Libya, and Uganda, and that humanitarian operations served as logistical cover. Emirati authorities have denied these allegations, maintaining that the UAE supports humanitarian relief efforts and political solutions to the crisis.

In Yemen, the UAE was a key member of the Saudi-led coalition opposing the Iran-aligned Houthis. At the same time, analysts have pointed to UAE support for the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks greater autonomy or independence for southern Yemen. Critics argue that this support contributed to political fragmentation, while others describe it as a pragmatic response to local security challenges and counter-terrorism objectives.

In Libya, the UAE has frequently been cited in international reports as a major external supporter of forces led by Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan National Army. Allegations include the provision of military assistance during operations against Tripoli-based authorities. UAE officials have consistently rejected claims of direct military involvement, emphasising their support for stability and counter-extremism.

In Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa, some observers have raised concerns about the UAE’s engagement with regional authorities and security actors, particularly in Puntland and Somaliland, suggesting that this involvement may have influenced internal political and security dynamics.

More recently, the Federal Government of Somalia announced the cancellation of all agreements with the UAE, including deals covering port operations, security cooperation, and defence. Somali authorities cited alleged violations of national sovereignty as the reason for the decision. The UAE, however, maintains that its activities in Somalia and the region are conducted within frameworks of cooperation, development assistance, and mutual security interests.

In 2022, the United States Treasury sanctioned six Nigerian individuals for allegedly raising funds in the UAE to support Boko Haram. This followed earlier actions by UAE authorities in 2021, when individuals were arrested and prosecuted for operating a fundraising network linked to the group. Despite these incidents, Nigeria–UAE relations remain largely focused on investment, trade, and broader economic cooperation.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja via zaymohd@yahoo.com.

By Gambo Zilkifilu Mohammed

The turquoise waters off Yemen’s coast, often a beacon of hope for thousands fleeing despair, have once again become a graveyard. In a chilling echo of tragedies past, more than 140 African migrants are feared dead after their overcrowded boat capsized late Saturday night on one of the world’s most perilous journeys, the so-called “Eastern Route” to survival.

Imagine the desperation that drives you onto a fragile vessel, crammed shoulder to shoulder with strangers, knowing the journey could end beneath the waves. For at least 74 souls, that nightmare became reality. 

They are missing, vanished into the vastness of the sea. The cruel waves have already surrendered 68 bodies to the shores of Abyan province in southern Yemen, a grim testament to the disaster. Only 12 shattered survivors bear witness to the final, terrifying moments.

These weren’t just numbers

They were individuals, mostly young Ethiopians, carrying the crushing weight of poverty, conflict, or climate-driven devastation back home. 

They clung to the fragile dream of menial work in the glittering Gulf states—a chance to feed families, build a future, survive. Yemen, itself ravaged by a decade of brutal civil war, famine, and disease, was never their destination, merely a deadly transit point on a path paved with broken promises.

“Many of the bodies have been found scattered along various parts of the coastline,” authorities in Abyan posted somberly on Facebook, sharing images that revealed a haunting truth: most had no life vests.

 They were utterly defenceless against the indifferent sea. Abdusattor Esoev, head of the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, pointed the finger squarely at the ruthless calculus of human smuggling: “The underlying cause… is due to smugglers filling boats over capacity and not providing enough life vests on board.” Profit over people, yet again.

This latest catastrophe is not an isolated horror. It’s part of a relentless, bloody pattern. Just four months ago, in March, at least 188 migrants drowned in similar circumstances between Yemen and Djibouti. The Eastern Route consumes lives with terrifying regularity.

Why do they keep coming?

 Because the alternative, staying in communities gripped by violence, starved by drought, or hollowed out by poverty,  feels like a slower death. They gamble everything for a sliver of hope. Yet, reaching Yemen offers no sanctuary. The country, fractured by war between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government, is a lethal labyrinth. Migrants face not only the sea’s fury but also airstrikes, exploitation, trafficking, and detention. Remember April? When US-made bombs obliterated a migrant detention centre in Saada, killing at least 60 souls who had already survived the crossing?

Many who do survive the voyage find themselves trapped in Yemen’s nightmare borders closed, opportunities vanished, preyed upon by smugglers demanding ransom, and subjected to abuse. The dream of the Gulf becomes a cruel mirage, replaced by a daily struggle for survival in a land consumed by its own suffering. 

The bodies washing ashore near Abyan are more than a statistic; they are a searing indictment. They represent the crushing weight of global inequality, the failure to protect the most vulnerable, and the deadly consequences of conflicts and climate crises they did not create. Each recovered body leaves a family across the Red Sea shrouded in agonising uncertainty, waiting for news that may never come. The waves took their lives, but the world’s indifference drowns their hopes.

 How many more mothers must mourn before this deadly exodus is met not with apathy, but with action?

Aljazeera News agency reported that the authorities in Saudi Arabia say they have intercepted three ballistic missiles targeting the country’s oil-rich eastern region as well as the cities of Najran and Jazan in the south.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attacks, but the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen blamed the Iran-aligned rebel group. There were no reports of casualties.

A source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that the missile aimed at the eastern region was intercepted over the city of Dammam.

Shrapnel from the missile scattered over the Dammam Suburb neighbourhood, injuring two Saudi children, while 14 homes suffered light damages, the official SPA news agency said, citing a statement by the defence ministry. Earlier, the coalition also reported the interception of three explosive-laden drones headed towards Saudi Arabia.

The attacks come four days after a drone hit Abha International Airport in the south, wounding eight people and damaging a civilian plane.

Yemen’s Houthis regularly launch drones and missiles into the kingdom, including aerial attacks aimed at Saudi oil installations. An attack in September 2019 on two Saudi Aramco plants in the east temporarily knocked out half the country’s oil production.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters there was no impact on facilities belonging to state-controlled oil giant Aramco on Saturday and that the attack happened outside of Aramco facilities.

“The Ministry of Defense will take the necessary and deterrent measures to protect its lands and capabilities, and stop such hostile and cross-border attacks to protect civilians, in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the ministry said in a statement according to SPA.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing forces of the deposed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fighting the Houthis.

The grinding conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions, resulting in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

While the UN is pushing for an end to the war, the Houthis have demanded the reopening of Sanaa airport, closed under a Saudi blockade since 2016, before any ceasefire or negotiations.