A local official in Al-Mahra Governorate, east of Yemen, said that Saudi forces in an active port had expelled a Yemeni battalion charged with protecting the port and closed it.
The official, who preferred not to be named, stated that the Saudi forces expelled the battalion of the 137th Brigade of the Yemeni government forces - which is in charge of protecting the port - and added that they prevented citizens from approaching it.
The official stated that the Saudi forces closed the port, claiming that it had seized a boat loaded with weapons, and that it had deployed militias recently established to work alongside its forces in al-Mahra.
Commenting on these developments, the official of the external communication of the Mahra sit-in committee, Ahmed Belhaf, said in connection with the island Friday evening that Yemen is currently witnessing a "double movement" from the Saudi and Emirati sides in the provinces of Mahra and Socotra to tighten their control at the expense of the legitimate Yemeni government.
For more than two years, the Yemeni governorate of Al-Mahra, bordering the Sultanate of Oman, has been witnessing protests against the Saudi military presence in it, and citizens and tribesmen have repeatedly responded to Saudi forces ’attempts to create military sites and checkpoints in areas of the governorate, and work related to a Saudi oil project.
One of the main goals of Saudi Arabia in the province is to prepare for the project to extend an oil pipeline from the kingdom’s lands to an active port in Mahra overlooking the Arabian Sea, analysts and activists said.