Yemen completes evacuation of stranded tourists on Socotra island

Yemen completed on Saturday the evacuation of more than 600 tourists who had been stranded on the remote Yemeni island of Socotra after the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week amid a rift with Saudi Arabia.

Four flights operated by Yemenia Airways, Yemen's national carrier, transported 609 tourists to Saudi Arabia's city of Jeddah, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Air traffic at the island's main airport came to a halt as a deepening crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia translated into fresh conflict on Yemen's mainland, where the two Gulf powers now back opposing groups in the country's civil war.

Socotra, which lies more than 300 km (186 miles) south of Yemen's coast and until recently was mainly accessible by air via the UAE, has been a haven of tranquillity through the years of conflict on the mainland.