Yemeni Emergency Forces say they downed a Houthi drone near the Saudi border

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AL-WADIAH, Yemen — Air defence units of Yemen’s Emergency Forces shot down a Houthi drone near the Saudi border on Saturday, the force’s 3rd Division said.

The division said its air defences engaged the aircraft as it approached the al-Wadiah border area in eastern Hadramout province. It published the account in a statement on X.

The statement cited an unnamed military source. The source said the drone was flying toward areas where residents and displaced families live before air defence units engaged it remotely.

The drone came down before it reached its target, the source said. No casualties and no damage were reported.

The account rests on the Emergency Forces’ own statement. No independent confirmation of the interception has been published, and the Houthi movement, which calls itself Ansar Allah, issued no immediate comment.

The Emergency Forces “continue to perform their duties in protecting the area and confronting any threats or hostile attempts targeting the security and stability of the border regions,” the source said.

Al-Wadiah hosts Yemen’s main land crossing with Saudi Arabia. The crossing links Hadramout province to the Sharurah area of Saudi Arabia’s Najran region.

It is the only official land border point between the two countries. Since November 2025 it has been the sole approved route for passenger traffic across that border, according to the Logistics Cluster assessment of Yemen’s crossings.

The Houthi seizure of northern Yemen left al-Wadiah as the main overland exit for Yemenis living in government-held territory. Yemeni pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia pass through it. The Saudi Press Agency reported in May that health, passport and customs services at the crossing had been expanded.

The Emergency Forces were created by presidential decree in late 2025 under Saudi-led coalition supervision. They secure Yemen’s land borders and the anti-Houthi front lines in al-Jawf and Hadramout.

Saturday’s announcement was the second interception the force has reported this week.

On Tuesday the First Division of the Emergency Forces said its air defences brought down a drone as it neared the al-Thaniyah camp, in the desert north of Hadramout. The division’s media centre released photographs of burning wreckage and reported no casualties or damage. The Houthis did not comment on that account either.

Government formations elsewhere have made similar announcements. The Shabwa Defence Forces said on Aug. 18 that they had shot down a Houthi drone over a front line in eastern Yemen.

The desert north of Hadramout was struck this month in one of the heaviest single attacks on government troops since 2022.

Houthi forces fired eight ballistic missiles from al-Jawf province on Aug. 6 at al-Thaniyah and al-Abr in Hadramout and at al-Ruwaik in Marib, Al Jazeera reported. The missiles landed at about 2 p.m. local time.

They hit camps belonging to the Homeland Shield Forces, the Emergency Forces and the First Military Region, according to the same report. Al Jazeera said at least 30 government soldiers were killed and 15 wounded. Medical sources and local reports carried by other outlets put the toll between 30 and 60.

Fighting across several fronts has intensified since early August. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Aug. 17 that at least 17 civilians had been killed in attacks by Ansar Allah in government-controlled areas since Aug. 6.

Türk called on all parties to de-escalate and to spare Yemenis further misery. His office said it was verifying reports of further attacks on the Red Sea port of Mokha on Aug. 14 and 15.

The rights office listed several attacks in that period. A missile struck the Jaw al-Naseem camp for displaced people in Marib on Aug. 7, injuring six civilians including a child, it said. Missile and drone attacks on al-Mokha port in Taiz province two days later killed three port workers and injured four.

An attack on a cargo ship in the Bab al-Mandab Strait on Aug. 11 killed four crew members, three Pakistanis and one Indonesian, and injured several more, OHCHR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said. Fuel storage tanks and a residential compound at the Saudi field hospital in Mokha were among the civilian sites reportedly hit.

The Houthis control about a third of Yemen’s territory and the areas where most of the population lives, including Sanaa and the port of Hodeidah. International recognition rests with the Presidential Leadership Council in Aden.

UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council this month that Houthi attacks on commercial shipping threatened global trade and Yemen’s truce, which has largely held since 2022.

Separately on Saturday, the government-aligned National Resistance Forces said their naval units destroyed a Houthi bomb-laden boat in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the 2 December news portal reported. The group’s military media gave no further details.

The National Resistance Forces are led by Tareq Saleh, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council. They are based in the Red Sea port of Mocha and deployed along the western coast in parts of Taiz and Hodeidah provinces.

The Yemeni army said later on Saturday that one of its commanders, Yahya al-Warqi, had been killed in clashes with Houthi fighters. It did not say when or where he died. The Houthis did not comment.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis took Sanaa in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of the internationally recognised government in March 2015.