UAE recruits 40 local women for occupation force on Socotra Island
SANAA, May 13 (YPA) -The UAE government on Saturday admitted that it has recruited scores of women of Socotra Island and trained them in its camps in Abu Dhabi as part of its efforts to occupy the Yemeni island.
According to Emirati media, 40 women from Qatar arrived on Saturday at Socotra Airport, in the archipelago’s capital city of Hadibu, after they participated in a training program, claiming it was aimed at keeping the peace.
“The course lasted for three months,” the Emirati newspaper said.
The trainees received a number of security courses as part of the UAE’s ongoing efforts to recruit women as loyal security forces, far from the official security apparatus.
The newspaper published pictures of dozens of women, as they were coming off the airport, at Hadibu Airport, confirming that the female recruits would start their work in the province.
Earlier this year, local sources revealed that the UAE had started recruiting women on the island of the Socotra and deported them to Abu Dhabi to attend training courses.
On Thursday, Reuters quoted Yemeni government officials as saying that the United Arab Emirates had transferred some 300 separatist recruits as occupation forces to Socotra.
In early January, security sources on the island revealed the recruitment of a so-called public security force in the Socotra archipelago for scores of children and young people in the province’s new recruitment lists, effectively proving the use of child soldiers.
It also revealed the UAE had started to train and prepare the so-called Security Belt forces on the island of Socotra, after two batches arrived in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.
The training of girls and youngsters in the UAE comes in the context of the escalation meant to extend Emirati influence on Yemeni territory and to exploit the tragic situation in Yemen.
Experts also believe that the escalation is done the face of the Saudi military presence in the archipelago, which came after the outbreak of tension between the government of the exiled puppet ruler Hadi in Riyadh and the UAE, which brought troops and military equipment to the island mid last year.
E.M