When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its forces from Yemen last week within a Saudi deadline, they also left nearly 600 tourists stranded on the remote Yemeni island of Socotra, who had arrived by plane but were unable to leave, Reuters reported.
The island's main airport was shut down amid a deepening crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which has escalated into conflict on Yemeni territory, where the two countries already support opposing forces in the Yemeni civil war.
"Nobody has information and everyone just wants to get back to their normal lives," said Aurelia Krikstaponiene, a Lithuanian who arrived in Socotra for New Year. She was due to fly to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, but will now have to travel via Jeddah in Saudi Arabia given the UAE’s weakening control over the island.
Socotra, which lies more than 300km south of Yemen’s coast in the Gulf of Aden, could until recently only be reached by plane from the UAE. The island is an oasis of calm compared to the raging conflict in Yemen. For tourists, it offers enchanting beaches as well as unique flora, such as the famous dragon tree.
The UAE took effective control of Socotra in 2018, when UAE military transport planes first landed on the island. The deployment of soldiers and tanks was part of the Emirates’ attempt to expand its influence in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait region between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Reuters noted.