Türkiye Offers to Mediate as Fighting Intensifies Between Yemen’s Rival Factions
Erdogan said Ankara is prepared to contribute to efforts aimed at bringing Yemen’s competing parties together, noting that Türkiye is closely monitoring developments in both Yemen and Somalia.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Türkiye has expressed readiness to support dialogue between Yemen’s rival factions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a phone call on Sunday, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.
Erdogan said Ankara is prepared to contribute to efforts aimed at bringing Yemen’s competing parties together, amid a sharp escalation in fighting between forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He also noted that Türkiye is closely monitoring developments in both Yemen and Somalia, stressing that preserving the territorial integrity of both countries is vital for regional stability.
The call came a day after Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry invited Yemen’s southern factions to attend dialogue talks in Riyadh, as internal divisions within the internationally recognized government threaten to further destabilize the war-torn country.
Yemen has been embroiled in conflict since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.
While the Houthis continue to control much of northern Yemen, a new phase of conflict has emerged in the south involving rival armed groups that are nominally aligned with the government but supported by competing regional powers.
At least 80 fighters from the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which is backed by the UAE, have been killed since Friday in clashes and air strikes carried out by Saudi-backed forces, an STC military official told AFP on Sunday.
The official said at least 152 STC members were wounded and 130 captured, providing a preliminary casualty toll since the start of the Saudi-backed offensive.
Riyadh-backed forces launched operations on Friday to retake large areas seized by the STC, as a struggle for dominance deepened tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, long-standing allies that have supported different factions within Yemen’s fractured government.
According to the STC, most of the casualties resulted from Saudi-led coalition air strikes on separatist-held military camps, including Al-Khasha and Barshid in the eastern province of Hadramawt. An earlier strike on the Al-Khasha camp reportedly killed 20 fighters.
A military official aligned with Saudi-backed government forces said later on Sunday that at least 14 of their fighters had been killed and more than 30 wounded during the offensive.
Yemen’s presidency announced on Saturday that government forces had retaken resource-rich Hadramawt following what appeared to be an STC retreat. Riyadh-aligned military officials also said authorities in neighboring Mahra province had switched their allegiance back to the government without resistance.
By Sunday, Saudi-backed forces were consolidating their positions in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt, according to government military officials. However, amid the chaos of the fighting and rapid shifts in control, a law enforcement official in Mukalla said at least 18 suspected Al-Qaeda affiliates escaped from a local detention center in the port city.
Residents in Mahra province also reported sporadic clashes between STC loyalists and Saudi-backed forces, underscoring the fragility of the security situation.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have for years backed rival groups within Yemen’s divided government, which remains loosely united by opposition to the Houthis. Tensions between the two Gulf powers intensified after the STC launched a December offensive that saw it seize control of Hadramawt and Mahra, moves that angered Saudi Arabia and exposed fractures in the coalition.
The Saudi-led coalition has issued repeated warnings and carried out air strikes in recent weeks, including one targeting what it described as an Emirati arms shipment to the separatists. On Saturday, an STC military official said Saudi warplanes conducted “intense” strikes on the Barshid camp west of Mukalla.
Despite internal divisions, the Yemeni government continues to face the Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen. The conflict, now in its second decade, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to international organizations.