Saudi-backed council consolidates military command in southern Yemen

ADEN –

Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council on Saturday announced a major overhaul of military command in the south, placing all armed formations under the direct authority of the Saudi-led coalition following the collapse of a Southern Transitional Council (STC) offensive.

In a televised address, council chairman Rashad al-Alimi said a new Supreme Military Committee had been established and would operate under coalition supervision. The body, he explained, would oversee the training, arming and deployment of all military units operating in southern Yemen.

The move follows days of fighting in which Saudi-backed government forces regained control of large areas previously seized by the STC, a separatist group that had taken over two key southern provinces in December. The clashes underscored the fragility of power-sharing arrangements in the south, even as the wider war with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement continues.

The Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis since 2015, after the group captured the capital, Sana’a, the previous year and entrenched its control over much of northern Yemen.

The STC’s future now appears increasingly uncertain. Reports have circulated that its leader has left the country, while a delegation sent by the group to Riyadh announced on Friday that the STC had been dissolved. However, members of the council elsewhere rejected the announcement, saying it had been made under pressure.

Despite the political turmoil, thousands of STC supporters gathered in Aden on Saturday in defiance of a ban imposed by pro-Saudi authorities. Demonstrators waved the flag of the former South Yemen state, which existed between 1967 and 1990, and held portraits of STC president Aidarous al-Zubaidi.

“People from every southern province have come to Aden today to repeat what they have demanded for years, and again over the past month: an independent southern state,” said protester Yacoub al-Safyani. Some in the crowd also chanted slogans critical of Saudi Arabia.

Although Yemen’s internationally-recognised government operates from Aden, the city has long remained a bastion of STC influence, highlighting the persistent divisions that complicate efforts to stabilise the country.