Supporters of UAE-backed separatist group rally in southern Yemen

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ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Thousands of Yemenis rallied Saturday in the southern city of Aden in a show of support for a separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates, a day after it dissolved itself following clashes with forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Supporters of the Southern Transitional Council assembled in their stronghold of Khor Maksar district, where Aden's international airport is located. Armed groups loyal to the STC secured the protest area, according to an Associated Press journalist in Khor Maksar.

The protesters chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni international government. They waved flags of southern Yemen, which was an independent state between 1967 and 1990. Some held posters showing the council’s leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who fled Aden to the UAE earlier this month, according to footage aired by STC media.

Fadl Mahomed, a protester, said he took part in the protest to show support for the STC, its leader, al-Zubaidi, and the re-establishment of an independent state in southern Yemen.

“We will remain in the squares until the restoration of the state of South Arabia,” he said, referring to the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, which was an independent state until its 1990 unification with northern Yemen.

The protest organizers said in a statement that they rejected the dissolution of the STC and called for the establishment of an independent state in southern Yemen.

Fromer Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi, who serves as an adviser to the chairman of the presidential council, on Saturday called for dialogue to absorb those who were not involved in crimes into the military and security agencies “on the basis of law and partnership, not exclusion.”

“The page of the transitional council has been turned,” he wrote on X, “because of its mistakes, corruption, arrogance and its use of force against the state and people of the south.”

Yemen, located at the strategic southern entrance of the Red Sea, has been mired for more than a decade in a civil war that involves a complex interplay of sectarian and tribal grievances as well as regional powers. Tensions have risen recently between U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE as their yearslong partnership in the war in Yemen broke down.

Established in April 2017, the STC was an umbrella organization for groups that seek to restore southern Yemen as an independent state, and received financial and military support from the UAE.

Al-Zubaidi, who was also a member of the ruling Presidential Transitional Council, was smuggled to Abu Dhabi through Somalia, after he reportedly declined to attend de-escalation talks in Riyadh, according to Saudi Arabia. An STC delegation attended the talks last week and then announced the dissolution of the separatist body.

Abdulrahman Jalal al-Sebaihi, secretary-general of the secessionist council, announced on Friday that the STC would shut down all of its bodies and offices inside and outside Yemen, citing internal disagreements and mounting regional pressure.

However, Anwar al-Tamimi, a spokesman for the council, contested the decision, and wrote on X that only the full council, under its president, can take such steps — highlighting the internal divisions within the separatist movement.

Tensions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi exploded early last month, when UAE-backed forces took over the provinces of Hadramout, on the borders with Saudi Arabia, and Mahra, where they seized oil-rich areas and facilities. They also seized the presidential palace in Aden.

After weeks of Saudi-led efforts to de-escalate, government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, forced the separatists out of Hadramout, the presidential palace in Aden and military camps in Mahra.

The escalation in southern Yemen was the latest twist in the civil war that has gripped the county since 2014, when Houthi rebels backed by Iran descended from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government to flee first southward, then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition that included the UAE entered the Yemen war the following year in an attempt to restore the government. The war has remained at a stalemate in recent years, and the rebels reached a deal with Saudi Arabia that stopped their attacks on the kingdom in return for an end to Saudi-led strikes on their territories.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.