Mapping who controls what in Yemen in 2026

The internationally recognised government of Yemen, known as the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), says its forces have recaptured two strategic southern provinces, reversing a month-long takeover by the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In early December 2025, the STC, a UAE-backed secessionist force, seized the two oil-rich provinces of Hadramout and al-Mahra, which border Saudi Arabia, in a campaign that Riyadh described as a red line for its national security.

Saudi Arabia, which backs the PLC, responded with a series of air strikes on STC positions, including an attack on the southern Mukalla port, targeting what it described as United Arab Emirates (UAE) weapons shipments to the STC.

The PLC and STC have long been allies in the fight against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who captured Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014. Recent clashes have intensified instability in the war-ravaged nation and heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In this visual explainer, media unpacks the various groups fighting for control in Yemen, detailing who controls what on the ground and what this means for the humanitarian situation of the country’s 42 million people.

Who are the key players in Yemen?

There are three key players in Yemen: The Saudi-backed PLC, the Emirati-backed STC and the Iranian-backed Houthis.

Presidential Leadership Council (PLC)

The PLC is Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed governing body, based in Aden.

The group has been led by Rashad al-Alimi since 2022, after former President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi formally transferred his powers to the new eight-member body, which was established to unify the various factions fighting the Houthis.

The council is composed of a mix of northern and southern political and military leaders. While it included the STC at its founding in 2022 to unite anti-Houthi forces, that alliance collapsed on January 7, 2026, when the PLC expelled the STC leadership following their attempt to seize the country’s eastern oil provinces.

The PLC’s mandate is to manage Yemen’s political, security and military affairs during a transitional period and to steer negotiations towards a permanent ceasefire.

Southern Transitional Council (STC)

The UAE-backed STC has undergone major changes over the past few weeks, leaving its future uncertain.

The group, which initially supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen, is seeking an independent state in southern Yemen, much like South Yemen before the unification of the country in 1990, under former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

On January 7, Yemen’s internationally recognised government announced that the STC’s leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, had committed treason and was dismissed from the Presidential Leadership Council.

Instead of attending a meeting in Riyadh, al-Zubaidi dramatically fled the country on January 8, reportedly heading to the UAE through Somaliland.

On January 9, a delegation of STC members in Riyadh announced the group’s disbandment. However, an STC official in Yemen rejected this announcement, telling media that the delegation members in Riyadh were “coerced” into making the statement.

Saudi Arabia is planning to host a conference of the main political factions from the south to shape the future of Yemen.

Houthis

Ansar Allah, commonly referred to as the Houthis, is an armed group trained and backed by Iran, and holds a considerable area in the north and west of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The Houthis emerged in the 1990s but rose to international prominence in 2014, when the group rebelled against Yemen’s government, forcing it to step down.

The group then spent years, with Iran’s backing, fighting a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which has largely been frozen since a United Nations-brokered truce in April 2022.

The Houthis control several strategic locations along the Red Sea, including the key port of Hodeidah, giving them leverage over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is vital to global shipping.

In November 2023, the Houthis began targeting civilian and military vessels in the Red Sea suspected of having Israeli ties, a campaign aimed at pressuring Israel to halt its genocidal war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023. They also launched multiple missile and drone assaults against Israel, with several strikes reportedly hitting their intended targets.

Who controls what on the ground?

The Houthis control the northwestern regions of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, while the Yemeni government controls most of the rest of the country. The map below highlights who controls what in Yemen based on data from the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank focused on Yemen and its surrounding region.

The government claims to have control of Aden and other parts of southern Yemen, but STC forces remain in some areas. The government has also declared that all anti-Houthi military forces, including the National Resistance Forces, will now be integrated into the Yemeni military, but that process has not yet begun.

Yemen’s humanitarian situation

Yemen still suffers one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world, with acute malnutrition, food shortages, and infrastructure collapse affecting millions.

A decade of conflict, economic crisis and lack of social services and ability to work has pushed millions of children into acute malnutrition and scores of diseases, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Despite the fragile truce in 2022, which has reduced civilian deaths, access to the most vulnerable has been limited.

According to the United Nations, at least 17 million people, about half of Yemen’s population of 42 million, face acute food shortages.

In May 2025, the UN reported that 4.95 million people are facing Phase 3, crisis-level food insecurity, which includes 1.5 million people facing emergency-level food insecurity, Phase 4.

There are about 11 million children in need of humanitarian assistance, and nearly 20 million people in desperate need of help, along with nearly 4.8 million people displaced from their homes since 2015.