Shabwa: Armed protests erupt in Nokhan camp as tensions mount over forced transfers

SHABWA, April 20 (YPA) – Tensions are mounting at the Nokhan camp, controlled by UAE-backed factions in Yemen’s Shabwa province, as armed protests erupt in the camp located   on the eastern outskirts of Ataq, raising fears of potential violence.”

According to informed sources, the unrest within the Nokhan camp, located near the Al-Abr road, is rooted in discriminatory and regionalist practices imposed by commanders from Lahj and Dhalea  provinces directed against Shabwa-based recruits.

The sources identified Bakil Al-Ka’ulawi Al-Subaihi as the leading figure enforcing these policies.

The unrest erupted after Al-Ka’ulawi insisted on forcibly transferring Shabwa recruits to Marib and Lahj while exempting others Al-Dhalea and Lahj provinces—a move widely seen as an attempt to ethnically cleanse the camp of Shabwa locals.

The refusal of Shabwa recruits to comply with the transfer orders signals a dangerous escalation, exposing deepening regional divisions that could erupt into open conflict. Meanwhile, local authorities—based in Abu Dhabi—remain absent, failing to intervene.

Leaders of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) from certain areas of Dhalea, Yafa’, and Radfan—commonly referred to by southerners as ‘the Triangle’—have tightened their grip on senior civil and military positions, while systematically excluding and marginalizing individuals from Shabwa, Abyan, and Yemen’s eastern governorates, including Hadramout and Mahra.

@E. Y.M