The War for Paradise: Imperialism in Yemen

Socotra Island

Beauty Beyond Compare

Socotra, deriving its name from Sanskrit for “Island of Bliss,” is the largest of four islands making up the Socotra Archipelago. Located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen and Somalia, it is officially part of Yemen. Some believe it to be the location of the Garden of Eden, and understandably so. The island and its population have been ecologically isolated from most of the outside world for millennia, resulting in an extraordinary ecosystem and biodiversity that earned it a place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2008.

The most famous attraction is the Dragon’s Blood Tree, which looks like a flying saucer supported by an elephant trunk, and oozes a dark red sap that the locals use for medicine, varnish, makeup, and paint. From the Hajhir Mountains to the Hadibo Lagoon, the island is home to hundreds of exotic endemic species of plants and animals, including Bright reef-building coral, Socotran Chameleons, and Skinks, a reptile that looks like a cross-breed between a lizard and a snake.

Dragon's Blood Tree

But however immaculate the island may appear, it’s bubble was popped when the civil war on mainland Yemen dragged it into a gruesome, complex struggle for power that currently has no end in sight. In March of 2015, a Saudi-led coalition began bombing Yemen in a crusade to push back the Houthis, a rebel group controlling the North that forced Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile. In November of that same year, two vicious cyclones ripped across Socotra, leaving the 60,000 already-poor inhabitants in dire need of assistance. With the Yemeni Government too weak and preoccupied with the war to help, the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi-led coalition, rushed to deliver humanitarian aid. Over the past three years, the UAE has contributed more than two billion dollars towards helping the Yemenis, millions of which went to Socotra. They have built and rebuilt schools, hospitals, roads and stores, and shipped food, water and electricity to the island, saving the natives from impending disaster.

But months, then years, later, the UAE remained on the island with no apparent intention of leaving. The Socotris became accustomed to their presence, as was apparent from the green Emirati flag painted in villages, on buildings, and even on the sides of mountains with messages thanking Mohammad Bin Zayed, the President of the UAE, for his generosity. This isn’t surprising given that they lent a helping hand during a crisis, but the UAE’s motives were not so transparent. 

Starting out humanitarian, the actions of the UAE soon became colonial. they began shipping planeloads of Socotris to Abu Dhabi by enticing them with free healthcare and work permits while opening up the island to Emiratis. With the construction of an airstrip in 1999 and it’s recent expansion by the UAE, the culture has dissipated, being “Arabized” with khat and conservative Islamic dress for women. The power grid and the supermarkets constructed in the wake of the cyclones are too expensive for the natives to afford, and the cost of living has precipitated since the war broke out on the mainland.

One Emirati businessman told reporters from The Independent that he was going to build a 5-star hotel on the island, and this was confirmed by reports of granite and limestone cliffs along the shoreline roads being scooped out, and construction work commencing. Some Socotris have even accused the UAE of stealing the UNESCO-protected wildlife. Native fishermen are struggling for work after Emirati ships depleted the fish populations, and the delicate ecosystem is being threatened by overgrazing from cows and goats.

One benevolent campaign by the UAE has been to ween the natives off the highly addictive stimulant, Khat, but even this was met with much hostility. In October of 2017, Emirati troops halted a shipment of the plant on the road between the port and the main town of Hadibo. Then, they created a bonfire out of it, prompting a riot to erupt from the town with people shoving oil-soaked leaves into their mouths. Since that incident, anti-UAE protests became more frequent.

Yemeni Protests

The situation in Socotra is eerily reminiscent of James Cameron’s “ Avatar,” as the rich, modern empire bulldozes sacred land, 70% of which is UNESCO-protected. It would be a shame for one of the world’s most spectacular locations to be transmogrified into an ugly appendage of the pale, soulless city that is Dubai, where wealthy oil-producers literally enslave people. Even the Socotris who took the bait and flew to Abu Dhabi could be subject to the myriad of civil rights abuses migrant workers face in the UAE.

Despite all of this, UAE foreign minister Anwar Gargash made a statement saying, “Among the rules of political action is that you should build trust with your allies ... and put the public interest ahead of personal ones.” But further action seemed to contradict this sentiment. In April of this year, Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher caught wind of rumors of Emirati annexation, so he ventured to the Island with a small delegation to investigate. Shortly after arriving, the UAE ejected all Yemeni civilian and military personnel from the airstrip and seaport. Then in one swift move, the first Emirati military aircraft arrived carrying two armored vehicles and more than 50 soldiers, followed immediately by two other aircraft carrying tanks, armored vehicles and troops. This rightly outraged the Prime Minister, who was effectively trapped on the island, and the lack of transparency by the Emiratis was nerve-racking.

UAE Troops Arrive

The UAE and the Yemeni government were allies in the war, but events like this, clashes between Emirati and Yemeni forces, and support by the UAE for the Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist group in Southern Yemen, only escalated tension. The people on the mainland have also turned their attention towards Socotra with spray-painted messages appearing around Aden that read, “Socotra is Yemeni not Emirati.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Yemen looked to their Saudi allies to mediate the dispute. In May, Saudi troops landed on the island and held a private talk with both parties. An agreement was supposedly made, and afterward, the Yemeni Prime Minister announced on social media that he had left the island and that the Emiratis would be doing the same. Pictures were released that seemed to show Emirati forces leaving the island, but others have said they remained. Socotra has no media, and journalists are not very welcome, so it is extremely difficult for news on the issue to break. Reporters from The Independent had to sneak onto the island via a cargo ship to gain access.

Regardless of the UAE's presence or absence, the Saudis are there to stay. They have reportedly taken up the responsibility the Emiratis once held, providing the island with water and electricity. However, there are rumors circulating that they plan on building a conservative religious school, so the future of the island is not obviously improved.

It seems that one nation or another will inexorably wrap its fingers around the island; the only question is which one. There is a lot of motivation on all sides to control it because of its strategically significant position in the water. Socotra lies at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, once the heart of spice and silk trading between Africa, Arabia, and Asia. It is now among one of the world’s busiest oil-trading routes. Ships on their way to the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal have to pass by it, making the island incredibly valuable for countries like the U.S, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

The Saudis may have impeded the UAE this time, but the events that transpired on Socotra are only one anecdote in a larger phenomenon that has been taking place internationally for a long time. Although Dubai’s Jebel Ali is already the busiest port in the Middle East, the UAE has been monopolizing ports all along the red sea, in countries including Eritrea, Somalia, and Bahrain. And despite their supposed efforts to take the lead in the international crusade against climate change, they seem very eager to seize control of important oil-trading channels. Over the past few years, the UAE has become the world’s 3^rd largest importer of arms and is one of only 11 countries with permanent military bases outside its own borders. With little to no media attention being given to the island, it seems Socotra's fate will be left in the hands of the big power players in the region.