Socotrans take to the streets in thanks for UAE’s support

Residents across Socotra are holding rallies in support of the UAE’s role on the island after the Yemeni Prime Minister criticised its presence.

Ahmed bin Dagher told of his plan about how the island should be developed on Sunday, although the government had not helped with Socotra’s progress for years.

Mr bin Dagher’s claims were “counter to realities”, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation told the state news agency, Wam.

The ministry said the dispute was a result of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “malignant media campaign against the UAE”.

“Such heinous campaigns led by Muslim Brotherhood that relates to Socotra island fits within long and repeated scenarios to distort the image of the UAE,” the ministry said.

Socotrans have welcomed UAE support after decades of neglect by the Yemeni government, said the island’s former governor, Maj Gen Salem Al Socotri. Infrastructure and social services were crippled in November 2015 after Cyclones Megh and Chapala pummelled the island’s six coastal cities.

“Where was the government then?” Gen Al Socotri asked. “No one troubled themselves to visit the island, even when its residents were living in a catastrophic situation.”

A Socotran resident at one of the rallies told The National that the island’s people would be forever grateful to the UAE.

“The hands of charity that stretched to us when we were homeless after Chapala were the hands of Zayed’s sons in the UAE,” said Salem Saeed, a social activist.

Another, Abdulrahman Jumaan, said: “What they have done for us is clear and notable.”