Forces of the Transitional Council of South Yemen announced the establishment of control over the Socotra archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean.
Earlier, the Yemeni government has repeatedly accused the southern separatists of trying to establish control over Socotra. On June 19, Al-Jazeera reported with reference to sources that Saudi troops supporting the Yemeni army left strong points in the vicinity of the provincial capital of the city of Hadibo on Thursday and transferred them to the control of the Transitional Council.
A council statement posted on their official website states that Socotra was “completely released”. The head of the branch of the Transitional Council on Socotra, Ali Ibrahim al-Sakli, said that the council, headed by its leader Aydarus al-Zubeidi, approved the introduction of self-government in the archipelago.
The central Yemeni authorities have already responded to the events.
“The fact that the so-called Transitional Council was formed on the Socotra archipelago is a full-blown coup that undermined the state’s institutions in the province”, – the state agency SABA reports citing a source in the Yemeni government.
In November 2019, the internationally recognized government of Yemen, led by President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and the separatists from the Transitional Council of South Yemen signed a peace agreement in Riyadh to end the military confrontation. The signing took place in the presence of the Crown Princes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Salman and Muhammad bin Zeid, as well as the President of Yemen. The agreement, in particular, provides for the transfer of military facilities and state institutions seized by separatists in the south of the country into the hands of the government.
The separatists created their own Transitional Council of South Yemen in May 2017. Their leader was the governor of Aden, Idarus az-Zubeidi, who was fired shortly before by President Abd Rabbou Mansour Hadi.