Coalition plans to establish new militia in Mahra

The Saudi and UAE-led coalition is planning to establish a new militia in Mahra province, eastern Yemen, bordering Oman, said an official in the UAE-backed Southern Transitional  Council (STC).

Khaled Saeed Taha, director of the so-called Cultural Department of the STC in Mahra affirmed that the coalition directed the establishment of a militia ” The Mahri elite and Mahra Defense Forces” , in order to stabilize the pillars of what he called “security and the southern army.

He pointed out that a meeting was held for a number of notables and sheikhs who demanded the removal of all Yemeni military brigades from Mahra, under the pretext of implementing the so-called “Riyadh Agreement”, which was signed on November 5, 2019, which stipulates  the return of presidential protection brigades and Islah militants to Aden, after they were expelled by the UAE-backed  militia in August of the same year.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are seeking to transfer security chaos to Mahra, through bringing in members of their militias from Dhalea and Yafa districts, after they took control of the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa.

The Saudis handed those provinces to its militias to make it easier for Saudi Arabia to implement its project, which is extending the oil pipeline through Yemeni territory in Mahra to the port of Nishtun on the Arabian Sea.

Saudi Arabia had begun installing ground signs to extend the oil pipeline through Yemeni territory during 2018, but the members of the Mahra tribes confronted the Saudi plan and uprooted those marks.

The people of Mahra announced their peaceful sit-in against foreign occupation at the end of 2017, demanding the departure of  the American and British forces from Mahra.

The leaders of the Mahra sit-in  who are demanding the exit of foreign forces are subjected to widespread distortion and incitement by the Emirati and Saudi media, in a clear indication that they are heading to confront these leaders through the STC militia.

E.M