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11-12-2025
SANA’A: Yemen’s main southern separatist group has claimed broad control of the southern part of the country, marking a major shift in power for the area.
Amr al-Bidh, a senior official of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), told media on Monday that the group had extended its presence in all southern provinces including the port of Aden, the base of the internationally-recognized government over the past decade following a military operation codenamed “Promising Future” launched last week.
The eight southern governorates “are under the protection of the Southern Armed Forces”, al-Bidh said by text message.
“We are concentrating on unifying the operational theatre of our armed forces to enhance coordination and readiness to reinforce stability and security in the south, as well as combatting the Houthis should there be a willingness to head in this direction.”
The STC’s advance marks a major shift in control in southern Yemen. The group seeks greater autonomy for the south, which was an independent state until unification with the north in 1990.
The STC said senior figures from other groups had left Aden, including the head of the eight-member body that acts in place of a president, and the prime minister.
The STC, which has been backed in the past by the United Arab Emirates during Yemen’s decade-old civil war, has clashed with other groups in the Saudi-backed government, which relocated to Aden after the Iran-aligned Houthis captured the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Since 2022, the STC has served in an administration that controls southern areas outside the grip of the Houthis, under a Saudi-backed power-sharing initiative.
Presidential Council head Rashad al-Alimi, who briefed diplomats in Riyadh on Sunday, said in a statement on Monday that the STC’s actions across the south “undermine the legitimacy of the internationally recognized government” and violate power-sharing agreements.
A UAE official told media on Monday that the country’s position on Yemen “is in line with Saudi Arabia in supporting a political process” based on Gulf-backed initiatives and United Nations resolutions. The official did not directly address the STC’s moves in southern Yemen.
There was no word from Saudi Arabia, where the government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Southern Transitional Council, or STC, an umbrella of armed groups trained and financed by the UAE expanded its control over Yemen’s south earlier this month. They seized control of Seiyun in Hadhramaut, including crucial oil fields and energy installations, including PetroMasila, Yemen’s largest oil company, following brief clashes with the Yemeni military, and allied tribes.
Forces of the secessionist group were deployed across the strategic Wadi Hadramout area, which includes major urban centers and military bases, according to STC-allied media. They took over the presidential palace and the international airport in Seiyun last week, and advanced to the province of Mahra, which borders Oman, the group said.
STC hoisted the flag of South Yemen over government buildings across the country’s south including on the border crossing with Oman. Images circulated on STC-allied media showed the South Yemen flag, with its light blue chevron and a red star, flying over government buildings and schools in the south.
The separatists enjoy loyalty through much of southern Yemen and have repeatedly pushed to break up Yemen into two countries, as it was between 1967 and 1990. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
