Jan 10 (Reuters) – Yemen completed the evacuation of more than 600 tourists on Saturday who were stranded on Yemen’s remote Socotra island after the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week amid a feud with Saudi Arabia.
Four flights operated by Yemeni national carrier Yemen Airways transported 609 tourists to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Air traffic at the island’s main airport came to a standstill as the deepening crisis between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the two Gulf powers now backing rival groups in Yemen’s civil war, turned into a new conflict in mainland Yemen.
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Socotra, more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) off the coast of Yemen and until recently reached mainly via Emirates, has been a peaceful haven amid years of conflict on the mainland.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher; Editing by Mark Potter)
