UAE hands over Hanish Islands to Eritrea with complicity of Tariq Afash

SANAA, May 31 (YPA) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has handed over to Eritrea the islands of the Hanish in the Red Sea, with the complicity of Tariq Afash, and Eritrean naval boats are now imposing their dominance over the islands and Yemen’s territorial waters, and controlling their fishing.

Local sources in the city of Khokha, which is controlled by Tariq Afash’s forces backed by the UAE, confirmed on Saturday that Yemeni fishermen had been attacked by military naval boats of the State of Eritrea while fishing west of The Great Hanish Island.

“Eritrean soldiers beat 54 Yemeni fishermen at gunpoint, fishing near Jebel Awad Ali, confiscated seven boats, fish and equipment, and left them one boat they had travelled in,” the sources said.

According to the sources, “the attack took place in the sight of the coast guard (of Tariq Afash) and the so-called elite forces.” “It did not move and did not prevent Eritrean boats from violating Yemeni waters and the Hanish islands,” they added.

The repeated attacks by the Eritrean navy on Yemeni fishermen came as the so-called “1st Brigade Coast Guard” of Tariq Afash on the west coast-imposed levies on fishermen.

“The military navy of the State of Eritrea has invaded Yemen’s islands and territorial waters, and took control over fishing, as if it were owned in the absence of any role for the Yemeni navy and the coalition,” the sources said, referring “Tariq Afash’s complicity  with her,” one of the sources said.

“The UAE and Eritrea have a military agreement to use the port and airport of Assab base for its forces, its warplanes, training camps for its militias and detention camps for its opponents,” the sources noted.

Eritrea occupied the Hanish Islands in Yemen in 1995 and former regime claimed it was recaptured back in 1998, but Eritrean attacks on Yemeni fishermen have continued since 2011 and have been more significant since the start of the coalition war in 2015.

E.M