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.

كلمة محافظ سقطرى اليوم قوية ورسائل واضحة يعاهدكم يا شعب ان سقطرى وحدوية يمنية شرعية رافضة المساس بأمنها وسيادتها

يتحدث عن نتوءات خبيثة ظهرت لتعيدنا إلى عهد التخلف الجهل من خلال الانقلاب على الشرعية وتقويض سلطة الدولة #مقاطعه_اكسبو_2020_دبي pic.twitter.com/7pEM20UYJZ — جزيرة سقطرى🌴Socotra Island (@Suqutra_Island) October 20, 2019

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.

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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 Currently the UAE is scaling back its military presence especially on Yemen’s mainland, having withdrawn hundreds of troops from the southern Yemeni port city of Aden as more Saudi troops poured in.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.

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