Abyan Governorate in the context of Fadhli Sultanate

Hadhramaut (Arabic: حَضْرَمَوْت, romanized: Ḥaḍramawt pronunciation; Hadrami Arabic: حَضْرَمُوت, romanized: Ḥaḍramūt pronunciation) is a geographic region in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula which includes the Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut, Shabwah and Mahrah, Dhofar in southwestern Oman, and Sharurah in the Najran Province of Saudi Arabia, and sometimes the Aden, Abyan and Lahij governorates of Yemen at a more stretched historical definition. The region's people are known as the Hadharem. They formerly spoke Hadramautic, an old South Arabian language, but they now predominantly speak the Hadhrami dialect of Arabic.

Though the origins of the name are unknown, the name Hadhramaut is traditionally explained as a compound word meaning "death has come" or "court of death," derived either from the Arabic ḥaḍara ("he came") plus mawt ("death"), a folk nickname for Amer bin Qahtan, the region's legendary first settler, or from the Biblical Hebrew ḥaṣar ("court" or "dwelling") plus māweṯ ("death") as seen in Hazarmaveth. The name is of ancient origin and is reflected in the name of the modern-day Yemeni governorate of Hadhramaut.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Arabic: تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, romanized: Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit. 'Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula'), or AQAP is a Sunni Islamist militant organization which seeks to overthrow the Yemeni government and establish the Islamic Emirate of Yemen. Part of the al-Qaeda network, the group is based and primarily active in Yemen, while also conducting operations in Saudi Arabia. It is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's affiliates that emerged after the weakening of central leadership.

Established in 2009 as a merger between al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, the group took advantage of the 2011 Yemeni Revolution to seize and establish several emirates in southern Yemen, including in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan governorate. After being driven out through a government offensive in 2012, the group returned to an insurgent campaign rather than holding territory. AQAP would again capitalize on political turmoil in the country when the Yemeni civil war broke out in 2014. AQAP would reach its territorial peak in 2015, with the group seizing much of southern Hadhramaut governorate, including its capital Mukalla, recapturing their emirates in the south, and establishing a presence across multiple fronts in the civil war against the Houthis, most prominently in Aden, al-Bayda governorate and Taiz. Its strength has since waned due to internal struggles and operations waged against them by multiple parties in the civil war, as well as through an ongoing drone campaign by the United States which has killed many of its senior leaders and members.