The first Shabwa and Al-Mahra Strategic Forum, hosted by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and the Oxford Research Group, was held December 4 - 6, 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The reasons the Yemen War began are fundamentally different from why it continues today. All parties to the war – local, regional, and international – have exploited the chaos and collapse of the state to pursue their own vested interests. Among these: powerful actors in the armed Houthi movement have accrued vast sums of wealth through aid diversion and exploiting…
This paper lays the context for the evolving power struggle by examining al-Mahra’s unique character and history, and developments since the 2011 Yemen uprising. It then details the dynamics between the various local and regional actors to shed light on the myriad factors contributing to the current tension in one of Yemen’s most underreported regions.