Al Jazeera Net - Special

Less than a month after it supported the coup of the Southern Transitional Council against the government in the interim capital Aden, the features of a new coup d'etat on the island of Socotra began.

The events began with a power outage on the island after the supply of fuel to power stations stopped, and gunmen led by officials in the "Southern Transition" pulled generators from the headquarters of the electricity.

On Friday, the local authority tried to deliver a fuel shipment to the Qalansiya power station on Socotra, but was blocked and blocked by security belt forces, apparently intentionally keeping the island in complete darkness.

The Socotra archipelago, consisting of four islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horn of Africa near the Gulf of Aden, 350 km south of the Arabian Peninsula, enjoys a strategic location of great importance.

Mohamed Salem, a local official in Socotra, said the UAE, having failed in recent days to control the island through military force, has tended to worsen the situation and stifle the province with basic services, taking advantage of the weakness of local authorities.

Al Mazrouei Access
Salem adds to Al Jazeera Net that the arrival of Khalfan Al Mazrouei to the island last week was the spark that ignited the situation in the region, as he began to instigate Socotri against government authorities, while the movements of followers of the Southern Transitional Council began.

Mazroui is the main controller of the security belt forces in Socotra (social networking sites)

Al-Mazrouei is an Emirati officer named Socotra in Abu Mubarak. He came to the island on repeated occasions as a delegate to the Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation.

Salem pointed out that Al Mazrouei's first directive was to loot electricity generators from the public establishment on the grounds that the generators had been provided by the UAE to the local authority.

The electricity company in Socotra said in a statement that Yahya Mubarak Saeed (commander of the security belt forces) and Brigadier Ahmed Issa (in the belt forces) and other gunmen stormed the headquarters of the institution after they attacked the guard and employees, and looted a generator and two electrical transformers.

Transitional forces
Days before Al Mazrouei arrived, the UAE had pushed a number of security belt troops to Socotra to reinforce the more than 300 soldiers they had arrived in early May, after training by Emiratis in Aden.

According to a security source in Socotra, the UAE wants to control the island and impose a fait accompli, in a repeat of events in the city of Aden, after the forces backed by the takeover of the city after the coup against the government on August 10 last.

He pointed out that the Emiratis appear more challenging this time may be up to confrontations against forces loyal to the government, after the attempt by security forces backed by the belt to seize control of the port of Socotra in mid-June.

UAE re-operates flights between Socotra and Hadramout without coordination with the government (social networking sites)

According to the security source, Al-Mazroui's movements since he arrived on the island are summarized in the meeting of the leaders of the Southern Security and Transition Belt, including former General Manager of Hadiboh Salem Dahiq, the head of the so-called Transitional Council of Socotra branch Yahya Mubarak, and the deputy governor of the province, Saleh Al-Soctari.

He pointed out that the aim of the meetings is to carry out a coup against the authorities of the governor Ramzi Mahrous despite the presence of Saudi forces who intervened in Socotra, to rein in the Emiratis during the crisis that broke out between the government and the Emiratis in May 2018.

He said that "the Saudi forces are few and take a neutral position, and Friday was unable to open the way for the fuel truck, which was on its way to the power plant, in a repetitive copy of events in Aden."

Flirting with the Socrates
According to the security source, the Emiratis began to deploy points for the belt forces and the formation of a parallel authority in the island, with the mobilization of loyalists to go out in rallies condemning the government and rejecting the legitimate authorities.

This time, the UAE is also trying to succeed in what it failed in the past, as it began to massage the hard nerves of the Socotra community rejecting the UAE presence, which was likely every time the hand of Governor Ramzi Mahrous.

According to locals who spoke in identical statements to Al Jazeera Net, the Emiratis are keen to support the tribes and establish small development projects in communities loyal to them, and in turn tighten the noose on them as one of the methods of pressure.

The Emiratis restored electricity to some tribes, and began to fly Qatari pilgrims to Al-Rayyan airport in the city of Mukalla in Hadhramaut governorate, which is also under their control.

Abdellah Began, a political activist and resident of Al Jazeera, ruled out the tension in Socotra to the point of confrontation between the authorities and the Emiratis, who believe that they will work to weaken the role of local authorities through the robbery of institutions and the establishment of an administrative entity parallel to the state entity.

"From the military side, Emiratis will use the events to their advantage in arming and strengthening the security belt under the pretext of protecting public property from reform and the Brotherhood, just like in Aden."