Yemen Monitor/Socotra/Exclusive:
On Sunday, soldiers from the First Marine Infantry Brigade on Socotra Island expelled a military committee that had arrived from Aden and was loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC). This move was a protest escalation against what they described as a “systematic demobilization attempt” aimed at replacing veteran soldiers—who belong to the Ministry of Defense of the legitimate government—with new elements loyal to the STC.
Protesting soldiers informed local media that the military committee, which arrived on the island under the name of “Training and Structuring Committees,” did not begin by restructuring the current brigade. Instead, it immediately started training about 1,500 new individuals. The protestors confirmed that this action was taken while completely ignoring the core soldiers in the brigade, including veterans and those currently traveling, which provoked their anger and fears.
The soldiers clarified that the real objective behind these moves is not reform or restructuring, but an organized process of “demobilization and replacement.” The protestors believe that the committee seeks to replace them with elements loyal to the STC, specifically from the Al-Dhalea governorate, in an attempt to impose the STC’s full control over the brigade and the Ministry of Defense sectors within the island.
The soldiers confirmed that the committee they expelled does not follow the official frameworks of the Yemeni Ministry of Defense but is directly affiliated with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council and operates outside the jurisdiction of the legitimate government. The past few hours have witnessed an escalation in tension within the brigade following these steps, which were deemed a blatant overreach of the authority of the legitimate military establishment.
