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Yemen: Socotra officials to seize illegally built UAE property

October 21, 2019 at 2:35 pm

Ramzi Mahrous, Governor of Yemeni island Socotra on 20 October 2019 [Twitter]

According to security sources on the Yemeni island of Socotra, Ramzi Mahrous the governor of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government is to reclaim property taken or built by the UAE forces.

https://twitter.com/Suqutra_Island/status/1186041349532831744

Faiz Tahis, the newly appointed police chief under President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, explained that the UAE representative Khlafan Al-Marzoui has occupied 150,000 square metres of state land on the island.

READ: Saudi troops arrive in Yemen’s Aden as deal with separatists stalls

Local reports also indicate that the UAE has built the island’s largest fish factory, in addition to a supermarket and villa complex within the historic citadel – all without obtaining official sanctioning.

The moves by the Yemeni authority come amid the arrival of new Saudi backed reinforcements  consisting of military pickups and armoured vehicles. Currently the UAE is scaling back its military presence especially on Yemen’s mainland, having withdrawn hundreds of troops from the southern Yemeni port city of Aden as more Saudi troops poured in. Thus far a reported handover deal by separatists to the Hadi government has not materialised.

READ: Houthis summon Trump to court