A mysterious airbase is being built in Yemen's strategically important Mayun island which has not been claimed by anyone.

Mayun, a volcanic island in Yemen, sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for energy shipments and commercial cargo.

The airbase in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a huge runway across the 5.6-km (3.5 miles)-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The officials in Yemen have accused the United Arab Emirates government of the latest efforts of building an airbase as well.

“This does seem to be a longer-term strategic aim to establish a relatively permanent presence,” said Jeremy Binnie, the Middle East editor at the open-source intelligence company Janes, who has followed construction on Mayun for years.

It is “possibly not just about the Yemen war and you’ve got to see the shipping situation as fairly key there”, Binnie added.

Yemen is a country in crisis which is fighting a civil war as the tensions spike now and then with the revolting Houthi rebels which have pushed the country to one of the greatest humanitarian crisis.

UAE so far has not responded to the Yemeni government's accusations.