Evacuations Conclude as Yemen Airlifts Over 600 Tourists From Socotra After UAE Pullout
Yemen’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the evacuation of all tourists trapped on Socotra Island has now been completed, marking the end of a weeklong effort to move stranded visitors out after commercial flights abruptly collapsed during a dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters.
The ministry reported that four Yemenia Airways planes carried 609 foreign nationals to Jeddah, concluding an operation that began when the UAE withdrew its forces from Yemen under a Saudi deadline.
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The breakdown of air service left several hundred visitors—including Americans, Russians, Poles, and Italians—stuck on the archipelago after carriers linked to the UAE halted operations. The pullback from Socotra, part of the wider rupture between the Gulf partners, spilled over from Yemen’s mainland conflict and quickly shuttered the island’s main airport.
Although Socotra sits more than 300 kilometers south of Yemen’s coastline and has largely been insulated from the fighting, access depended heavily on UAE-backed aviation routes that were suspended as tensions escalated. Officials said the sudden grounding created a bottleneck that required a mix of chartered flights, diplomatic clearances, and coordination with Saudi Arabia to move tourists out.
Yemeni officials described the departures as an important step in resolving the disruption that began when visitors found themselves unable to leave following the UAE’s withdrawal from the island.
