Hundreds of tourists stranded on remote island amid Middle East rift

Hundreds of European and American tourists who travelled to a remote island in the Indian Ocean have been left stranded after United Arab Emirates (UAE) troops withdrew from the region.

Roughly 600 tourists who flew to the island of Socotra, which belongs to Yemen and is located about 380 kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula and east of the Horn of Africa, can no longer fly off the island after Emirati troops left when a deadline set by Saudi Arabia passed.

Emirati troops had been on the island because of the civil war in Yemen, which the UAE also leveraged to expand its regional influence. Its military had initially joined with Saudi Arabian forces to back the Yemen government’s fight against Houthi forces. As part of that effort, the UAE deployed troops to Socotra.

Over time, the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s interests in the region diverged, with both backing alternative approaches to defeating Houthi forces.

Air traffic at the island’s main airport ground to a halt as the crisis between the countries spilled into fresh conflict on Yemen’s mainland, where the two Gulf powers now back opposing groups in the country’s civil war, which has been raging since 2014.

“Nobody has any information and everyone just wants to go back to their normal lives,” Aurelija Krikstaponiene, a Lithuanian who travelled to Socotra over New Year’s Eve, told Reuters.

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Krikstaponiene was scheduled to fly to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, but may now have to travel through Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, instead, as the balance of power shifts. Yemeni Airlines told the British outlet on Monday it would operate a flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 7. The airport had previously been under Emirati control.

Socotra, until recently, was accessible by air from the UAE and offered a sliver of tranquility to visitors amid years of conflict in Yemen.

Part of Yemen politically, Socotra came under UAE control in 2018 when its military planes landed on the island. Since then, it has become a niche tourist spot and seen a boom in infrastructure thanks to Emirati investment.

Its beaches, endemic trees and plants, including the Socotra dragon blood tree, have long drawn in tourists.

At the same time, its location in the Gulf of Aden, along a shipping route leading to the Red Sea, makes it strategically desirable to regional superpowers.

The tanks and troops that arrived in 2018 were part of the UAE’s efforts to extend its reach over the region’s waters, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

“Socotra functions like an unsinkable aircraft carrier sitting at the heart of the Bab al-Mandab system, in the middle of the trade corridor that links Europe, Asia and Africa,” Andreas Krieg, associate professor at King’s College London, told Reuters.

“Even without firing a shot, an actor with reliable access to the island gains important leverage: to observe, to potentially intercept and project influence,” he continued. “On an island where air access often becomes the decisive gateway, influence over connectivity translates into influence over everything else, including security presence, local governance, and commercial life.”

Yemen faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. Visiting Socotra poses a risk due to its proximity to the mainland, despite being isolated from the civil war.

Global News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for further information and to verify if any of the stranded tourists are Canadian.

— With files from Reuters

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