Protest Stand in Hadhramaut Rejects UAE Militia Presence
People of Hadhramaut organized a protest, denouncing the security chaos in the governorate.
The protesters denounced the attempt to plunge the districts of Wadi Hadramout into chaos and to set up militia camps outside the state’s authority.
In the vigil organized by the Free Youth of Hadramout, the people of Wadi Hadramout raised banners denouncing the recruitment of militia from outside the governorate, refusing that the Wadi districts be an arena for regional conflict.
The protesters considered that maintaining security in the districts of Hadhramout is the responsibility of its people, calling for an end to the creation of camps for the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Militia.
This comes after the UAE brought in the “giants” militia, formed from the people of Al-Dhalea and Lahj, via Shabwa to Hadramout, and stationed in the Jathma camp, which controls the oil companies in the Wadi district.
In April 2016, the UAE forces imposed control over the city of Mukalla, the capital of the Hadhramaut coast, after a year of war on Yemen, under the pretext of confronting the terrorist individuals from Al-Qaeda, without any significant confrontations who disappeared within hours from the city. Military observers described this play as farcical.
The UAE forces have turned Al-Rayyan airport, the third largest Yemeni airport, into a military barracks, and it receives daily US military planes. Part of it has been converted into secret prisons and detention centers to hide and torture human rights activists and politicians.
Since 2016, Al-Rayyan Airport has been closed to civil flights, which has doubled the suffering of patients and travelers from Hadhramout, while Sayoun city airport in Wadi Hadramout remains the only outlet for the people of Hadramout and the eastern governorates, and even for most Yemeni travelers.
The UAE forces refuses to open Al-Rayyan Airport to civilian flights, amid calls for special procedures for travelers through the airport, and more than that, to grant it the right to specify the countries permitted to travel to by the coalition government, to no avail.
The southern governorates witnessed the highest level of crimes and violations. The annual report issued by the Media Center for the Southern Governorates stated that it had documented 1259 crimes and serious violations during the past year, including 159 assassinations as a result of the conflict between the militia of the Southern Transitional.
The report indicated that the center monitored 82 home raids in Aden and Shabwa governorates. Kidnappings have escalated, in Aden, Abyan, Shabwa and Lahj 67 crimes were committed affecting military commanders, civilian leaders and citizens, including party leaders, workers, women and children.
The crimes of clashes in the governorates of Aden, Lahj, Al-Dhalea, Abyan and Shabwa increased to 265 crimes due to insecurity and the proliferation of militias and armed groups loyal to the countries of the coalition.
220 detention crimes affected people in Aden, Shabwa, Lahj, Abyan, Hadramout and Al Dhale’e, indicating that 200 violations and forced deportations were committed on racial grounds against 4,500 people, the report added.
The report indicated that 92 crimes of extortion against merchants and investors of the occupied southern governorates were committ
“Based on the directives of the occupying countries, the armed militias affiliated with them faced peaceful protests in the streets of Aden, Ataq, Mukalla and Wadi Hadramawt districts by force of arms, forced arrests, chases, and raids on the homes of the free people who rejected the occupation,” the report pointed out.
The report stated that the Center’s monitoring unit has recorded 380 crimes against peaceful protesters in the occupied southern governorates during September, including three killings, 280 arrests and extra-legal detentions, and 36 neighborhood raids to search for activists opposed to the starvation policies implemented by the occupying countries and Hadi’s government.