A mysterious airstrip has appeared on a remote island in Yemen with questions over what country is expanding their military presence in the volatile region.
The airstrip, on Abd al-Kuri Island, which rises out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, could provide a key landing zone for military operations patrolling the waterway.
The waterway is a key route for cargo and energy shipments heading to Europe and shipments have halved under attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
The runway is likely built by the United Arab Emirates, which has long been suspected of expanding its military presence in the region and has backed a Saudi-led war against the Houthis.
While the Houthis have linked their campaign to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, experts worry a ceasefire in that conflict may not be enough to see the rebels halt a campaign that's drawn them global attention.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have lobbed repeated attacks at Israel, as well as US warships operating in the Red Sea, raising fears that one may make it through and endanger the lives of American service members.
“The Houthis feed off war — war is good for them,” said Wolf-Christian Paes, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Yemen.
“Finally they can live up to their slogan, which famously, of course, declares, ‘Death to America, death to the Jews.’ They see themselves as being in this epic battle against their archenemies and from their view, they're winning.”
Satellite photos taken on January 7 by Planet Labs PBC show trucks and other heavy equipment on the north-south runway.
The runway has been paved, with the designation markings “18” and "36" to the airstrip's north and south respectively. As of January 7, there was still a segment missing from the 1.5-mile long, 150 foot wide runway.
Once completed, the runway's length would allow private jets and other aircraft to land there, though likely not the largest commercial aircraft or heavy bombers given its length.
While within Houthi drone and missile range, the distance of Abd al-Kuri from mainland Yemen means “there’s no threat of the Houthis getting on a pickup truck or a technical and going to seize it," said Yemen expert Mohammed al-Basha of the Basha Report risk advisory firm.
The United Nations' Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, which assigns its own set of airport codes for airfields around the world, had no information about the airstrip on Abd al-Kuri, spokesman William Raillant-Clark said. Yemen, as a member state to ICAO, should provide information about the airfield to the organisation. Nearby Socotra Island already has an airport declared to the ICAO.
It's not the only airfield to see an expansion in recent years. In Mocha on the Red Sea, a project to extend that city's airport now allows it to land far larger aircraft. Local officials attributed that project to the UAE.
Other satellite photos from Planet Labs show yet another unclaimed runway currently under construction just south of Mocha near Dhubab, a coastal town in Yemen's Taiz governorate. An image taken by Planet for the AP on Thursday showed the runway fully built, though no markings were painted on it.
A key location for a country riven by war
Abd al-Kuri is part of the Socotra Archipelago, separated from Africa by only 95 kilometers (60 miles) and from Yemen by some 400 kilometers (250 miles). In the last decade of the Cold War, the archipelago occasionally hosted Soviet warships due to its strategic location.
In recent years, the island has been overseen by Yemen's Southern Transitional Council, which advocates for Yemen to again split into a separate north and south as it was during the Cold War. The UAE has backed and armed the council as part of the Saudi-led war against the Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
The UAE, home to the massive Jebel Ali port in Dubai and the logistic firm DP World, previously built a base in Eritrea that was later dismantled and attempted to build an airstrip on Mayun, or Perim, Island, in the center of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
But unlike those efforts, the Emiratis appear likely to open the Abd al-Kuri airstrip — and have even signed their work. Just east of the runway, piles of dirt there have spelled out “I LOVE UAE” for months.
An Emirati-flagged landing craft also was spotted off the coast of Abd al-Kuri in January 2024 and off Socotra multiple other times in the year, according to data analyzed by AP from MarineTraffic.com. That vessel previously has been associated with the UAE's military operations in Yemen.
The UAE, which runs a once-a-week flight to Socotra via Abu Dhabi, have long described their efforts as aimed at getting aid to the archipelago. Asked for comment about the Abd al-Kuri airfield, the UAE similarly pointed to its aid operations.
“Any presence of the UAE ... is based on humanitarian grounds that is carried out in cooperation with the Yemen government and local authorities," the Emirati government said in a statement.
"The UAE remains steadfast in its commitment to all international endeavors aimed at facilitating the resumption of the Yemeni political process, thereby advancing the security, stability and prosperity sought by the Yemeni populace.”
The Southern Transitional Council and officials with Yemen's exiled government did not respond to repeated requests for comments over the airfield. The UAE's presence on Socotra has sparked tensions in the past, something the Houthis have used to portray the Emiratis as trying to colonise the island.
“This plan represents a serious violation of Yemeni sovereignty and threatens the sovereignty of several neighboring countries through the espionage and sabotage operations it is expected to carry out,” the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said in November.
