Documents obtained by Sheba Intelligence revealed that a new entity is forming in the geographical area of Bab al-Mandab Strait.
A recent letter sent by Yemeni businessman Saeed Al-Zikri to the Yemeni president, Rashad Al-Alimi, demanded the issuance of a decision to separate 13 Taiz districts to form a new entity under the name (Al-Hujariyah province) with Al-Turba district as its capital.
The letter identified Al-Zikri as the head of a preparatory committee consisting of 13 people. The letter was accompanied by a study justifying the process of separating particular Taiz districts with geographical and economic importance, indicating that it would have an important geographical location overlooking the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, and the Horn of Africa.
The study said, “The government will not bear the infrastructure budget, and the budget will be the responsibility of businessmen and organizations supported by brotherly and friendly countries.”
Sheba Intelligence obtained a copy of the study, which Dr. Riyadh Al-Mishrqi and Dr. Ahmed Al-Hamadi prepared. The study included 116 names of influential figures belonging to the 13 districts that will be separated from Taiz.
According to the study, the size of the 13 districts is 6977 square kilometers, about 55% of Taiz province’s size. The 13 districts constitute approximately 60% of the population of Taiz.
Mocha is among the important districts included in the study, and this district was historically famous for its port that exported Yemeni coffee. Another important district is Dhubab, in which the island of Perim is located. This island is located in the middle of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Other districts are Mawza’ - Jabal Habashi - Al-Misrakh - Al-Silw - Al-Wazi’iyah - Haifan - Al-Ma’afer - Al-Mawasit - Sama’ - Al-Shamaytain - Al-Maqatirah. Some of these districts have a coastal geographic location or high population and geopolitical extensions with the city of Aden.
Sources close to the government say that the UAE supports this proposal to separate the coastal districts in Taiz from the mountainous ones and that the Vice Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Tareq Saleh, supports this approach because Mocha is the center of his forces.
The sources added that there is also a tendency to annex the liberated districts in Hodeidah province, such as Al-Khawkhah and Hays, and districts from other governorates, such as Al-Mudaraba and Ras Al-Ara in Lahj Governorate. According to the sources, the new entity will be called the West Coast.
Observers believe that the war in Yemen will push the state to disintegrate further, as the Houthi group will continue to control the northern governorates, and the Southern Transitional Council will control the southern governorates. The forces in the western coasts led by Tareq Saleh look for political legitimacy to form a geographical entity.
If Saleh obtains this goal, this new entity will have specific geographical, historical, and social factors that will make it like an independent state of interest to the world, as it oversees a strategic link in the maritime trade route, the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
