SANAA, Yemen — On Feb. 23, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi appointed Mohammed Ali Yasser the governor of Mahra province, in southeastern Yemen, a week after armed tribesmen ambushed a convoy of Saudi-led Arab coalition forces on the road leading to the Shahin crossing with Oman. According to a Feb. 17 statement from the Mahra local authority, officials were still pursuing the perpetrators. The tribes object to the Saudi military presence in the area and fear that the Saudis want to displace Mahra's population and annex the territory.

Tribal leader Ali al-Hurayzi, the former deputy governor of Mahra, accused the Saudi forces of trying to seize and close the Shahin crossing, which he said “operates naturally according to [its own] laws and regulations.”

“The [Saudi] occupation forces have previously closed institutions and vital ports in the province, such as Al-Ghaydah Airport and the Nishtun seaport, and hindered the movement of passengers at the Serfeet port [with Oman],” Hurayzi told Al-Monitor. “The closure of the Shahin crossing would mean cutting off commercial traffic.”

Saudi forces deployed to al-Ghaydah Airport in November 2017, a move met with fierce opposition from local authorities and tribal leaders. Since 2017, Hadi has been dismissing officials who support tribal opposition to the Saudi presence, among them Hurayzi, who was fired from his position as commander of Mahra's border guards in February 2018.