Tourists on remote desert island stranded after rift between U.S. allies

When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had flown in but could no longer fly out

When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had flown in but could no longer fly out.

Air traffic at the island’s main airport came to a halt as a deepening crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia translated into fresh conflict on Yemen’s mainland, where the two Gulf powers now back opposing groups in the country’s civil war.

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

She was meant to fly back to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, but now may find herself having to travel through Jeddah in Saudi Arabia instead, as Emirati control over the island wanes.

Socotra, which lies more than 186 miles south of Yemen’s coast, and until recently was mainly accessible by air via the UAE, has been a haven of tranquility through the years of conflict on the mainland.