For years, the claims sounded like a whispered rumor from a locked country. Now there are doors, cells, scratched names, and dates that appear to run right up to late 2025. The question is no longer whether the sites existed, but who controlled them, who knew, and what comes next.
A BBC investigation says it was granted access to detention facilities on former United Arab Emirates military bases in southern Yemen, locations that rights groups and journalists have long described as part of a hidden prison network tied to the UAE and allied local forces during Yemen’s civil war.
What the BBC says it saw: containers, black paint, and fresh dates
According to the BBC, reporters visited two former UAE base sites near Mukalla, including the Al-Dhaba Oil Export Area, after Yemeni government forces retook territory in the south and invited journalists in, accompanied by Yemen’s information minister, Moammar al-Eryani. The BBC notes visas for international reporting in Yemen have been extremely difficult to obtain for years, making the access itself a key part of the story.
At one site, the BBC reports seeing about 10 shipping containers with interiors painted black and little ventilation. On the outside were names and dates scratched into the metal, markings the BBC describes as consistent with detainee accounts of when they were brought in or how long they were held. Several markings were dated as recently as December 2025, the report says.
In a groundbreaking investigation from Mukalla, Yemen, dated January 2026, the BBC has obtained exclusive access to detention facilities that confirm long-standing allegations of a network of secret prisons operated by the United Arab Emirates and itshttps://t.co/kboxkAH0zF pic.twitter.com/ZDwg1BN51u
— Crunchupdates (@itsCrunchupdate) January 23, 2026
At a second base, the BBC says it was shown eight brick-and-cement cells, including several described as roughly one metre square and two metres tall, which al-Eryani said were used for solitary confinement.
Testimony of abuse, and a familiar accusation: “confess to being al-Qaeda”
The BBC report includes allegations from former detainees that they were beaten and sexually abused. One former prisoner told the outlet he was abused at one of the sites and interrogators demanded he confess to being a member of al-Qaeda.
One quote does heavy work because it shows the power dynamic detainees say they faced. “They told me if I didn’t admit it, I would be sent to Guantanamo,” the man told the BBC, referring to the US military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He added, “I didn’t even know what they meant by Guantanamo until they took me to their prison. Then I understood.”
The detainee alleged he was held for a year and a half, beaten daily, and abused. He described severe deprivation, including restricted toilet access. He also said his captors included Emirati soldiers as well as Yemeni fighters, and alleged the presence of an Emirati “doctor” who beat prisoners and ordered others to do so.
These are allegations, not findings of a court. But the BBC says what it witnessed at the sites aligned with accounts it had gathered independently in prior reporting and through interviews in Yemen conducted separately from the government-guided visit.
A meeting of families: who is missing, and who is still inside
The BBC also reports on the work of Yemeni lawyer Huda al-Sarari, who has gathered testimony on detention and disappearance claims for years. The outlet says it attended a meeting she organised with about 70 people who said they had been held in Mukalla, plus families of another 30 who said their relatives remained in detention.
Families told the BBC they had repeatedly raised concerns with Yemeni authorities. Some argued it would have been impossible for a detention network to operate without the knowledge of the Yemeni government and its Saudi backers, given the broader coalition war effort.
And yet, the current Yemeni government’s line leans toward discovery, not complicity. Al-Eryani told the BBC: “When we liberated them we discovered these prisons, we had been told by many victims that they existed but we didn’t believe it was true.”
Saudi-backed Yemeni official accuses UAE of running secret prisons in the South #Saudi #Yemen #UAEhttps://t.co/xa2qVSV8RG pic.twitter.com/2asz7BBjpI
— ILKHA (@IlkhaAgency) January 20, 2026
The UAE response: no comment now, denials then
The BBC says it sent detailed allegations to the UAE government about the sites it visited and the reported abuse, but “received no response.” The report also notes the UAE has previously denied similar allegations.
The UAE has firmly denied allegations of secret prisons and weapons discovered in Yemen’s Hadramout, saying the claims lack evidence, its forces fully withdrew on January 2, 2026, and the sites cited are standard military facilities.#UAE #Yemen #DefenseMinistry #GlobalSecurity pic.twitter.com/NR3e9LPFG8
— Dubai Key Insights (@dubaikeyinsight) January 20, 2026
That denial pattern is not new. In 2017, Human Rights Watch published detainee accounts describing being held without charge in unofficial facilities and subjected to beatings, electric shocks, and other abuse. Human Rights Watch reported that UAE officials rejected the allegations and disputed that Emirati forces ran such prisons.
The problem for anyone trying to draw a clean chain of command is Yemen’s tangle of armed actors and shifting alliances. Control of a base, a jail, or an interrogation team can change fast. Responsibility, families say, does not change with it.
The timing: a fractured alliance, a sudden opening, and an order to close “illegal prisons”
The BBC frames its access as arriving at a turning point in the war’s southern power map. It reports that UAE forces pulled out in early January, and that Yemeni government forces and aligned groups retook large parts of the south from separatists backed by the UAE.
Then comes the political response. The BBC reports that on 12 January 2026, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi ordered the closure of all “illegal prisons” in southern provinces previously controlled by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), and demanded the immediate release of those held outside the law.
Al-Eryani told the BBC some detainees were found inside facilities but did not provide numbers or details.
Transfers to “formal” prisons do not end the questions
Several relatives told the BBC detainees have been transferred to prisons now nominally under government control. Yemeni authorities, the report says, argue that moving detainees into the formal justice system is complex.
Rights groups have a simpler fear: that arbitrary detention continues, just under a different flag outside the cell door.
One mother’s quote in the BBC report is blunt and political, because it challenges the core justification used in many counterterror detentions. “The terrorists are out on the streets,” she said. “Our sons are not terrorists.”
Why this story lands harder now
Yemen’s war has been defined by overlapping battle lines and competing patrons. Any one faction’s abuse allegations are often dismissed by rivals as propaganda. That is why physical access matters, even when it comes through a government-hosted tour.
The BBC’s reporting also matters because it collides with years of documentation by outside investigators. Human Rights Watch’s 2017 reporting placed specific claims in the public record. Broader summaries of Yemen’s multi-sided conflict, including shifting alliances between Gulf-backed partners, are widely described in background reporting such as the Council on Foreign Relations overview of Yemen’s war.
The stakes for the UAE are reputational and diplomatic. The stakes for Yemen’s government are credibility and control. The stakes for families are simpler: a name, a place, a court date, or proof of life.
What to watch next: numbers, paperwork, and who gets charged
Three developments will decide whether this becomes a short-lived media flare or a sustained accountability push.
First, detainee numbers. How many people were held at the sites the BBC visited, and how many remain in custody elsewhere?
Second, documentation. Who signed arrest orders, who logged transfers, and who controlled interrogations? Without paperwork, responsibility can dissolve into “allies” and “local forces,” and victims are left with stories that never enter a courtroom.
Third, prosecutions and access. Yemen’s leadership has issued an order to close illegal prisons, but enforcement will be measured by releases, court processing, and whether independent monitors can visit facilities without escorts.
For now, the BBC’s report plants a hard-to-ignore marker on the timeline: container walls with recent dates, and a mother’s line that does not fit neatly inside any coalition talking point. “Our sons are not terrorists.”
References
- BBC News, “‘I didn’t hear from my son for seven months’: Inside Yemen’s UAE-run secret prisons”
- Human Rights Watch, “Yemen: UAE-Backed Forces Torture Detainees” (2017)
- Council on Foreign Relations, “Yemen’s Tragedy: War, Stalemate, and Suffering”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Guantanamo Bay detention camp”
