Thousands of supporters of Yemeni separatist STC gather in Aden | Conflict News

The Southern Transitional Council faces an uncertain future due to internal divisions over plans to dissolve with its leader in exile.

Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Aden to show their support for the Southern Transitional Council (STC) amid conflicting reports over alleged plans to disband the separatist group following deadly clashes with Saudi-backed forces.

STC supporters chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally-backed government during protests Saturday in Aden’s Khor Maksar district, one of the group’s strongholds.

The crowd waved the flag of the former South Yemen, an independent state between 1967 and 1990.

“Today, southerners gathered from all provinces in the capital, Aden, to reiterate what they have been saying for years and throughout the last month: we want an independent state,” protester Yacoub al-Safyani told the AFP news agency.

The public demonstration of solidarity came after a successful Offensive supported by Saudi Arabia to drive the STC out of the southern and eastern regions of Yemen that it had seized late last year.

The clashes revealed heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a key ally that Saudi authorities accuse of supporting the STC.

The group had taken control of the provinces of Hadramout, on the border with Saudi Arabia, and al-Mahra, an area representing about half the country.

After weeks of de-escalation efforts led by Saudi Arabia, Yemeni government forces, supported by the Gulf country, launched an attack on the STC, forcing the separatists to leave Hadramout, the presidential palace in Aden and the military camps in al-Mahra.

On Friday, an STC delegation that visited Riyadh for talks announced the dissolution of the group in an apparent admission of defeat.

Secretary-General Abdulrahman Jalal al-Sebaihi said the group would close all its organs and offices inside and outside Yemen, citing internal disagreements and growing regional pressure.

However, Anwar al-Tamimi, a spokesperson for the STC, contested the decision, writing on

At Saturday’s protest in Aden, STC supporters held up posters of the group’s leader Eidarous all-Zubediwho was smuggled from Aden to the United Arab Emirates this week after failing to show up for talks in the Saudi capital.

Forces supported by Saudi Arabia accused the United Arab Emirates of helping him escape aboard a flight that was tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.

Authorities in Aden, aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, on Friday ordered a ban on protests in the southern city, citing security concerns, according to an official directive seen by Reuters.