Yemen’s UAE-backed separatists announced a two-year transition to independence Friday despite reporting 20 deaths in airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition trying to roll back their weeks-long offensive across the country’s south.
A separatist military official and medical sources reported 20 fighters dead in air raids on two military bases as the coalition also targeted an airport and other sites.
The bombardment and surprise independence bid follow weeks of tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the separatist Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) land-grab.
Yemen, which was divided into North and South from 1967 to 1990, could again be split in two years if the STC’s independence plan comes to fruition. It would call the new country “South Arabia”.
STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north -- controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels -- and a referendum on independence.
But he warned the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.
“The Council calls on the international community to sponsor dialogue between the concerned parties in the South and the North,” Alzubidi said in a televised address.
“This constitutional declaration shall be considered immediately and directly effective before that date (January 2, 2028) if the call is not heeded or if the people of the South, their land, or their forces are subjected to any military attacks,” he added.
STC forces took much of resource-rich Hadramawt, bordering Saudi Arabia, and neighbouring Mahra province on the Omani frontier, in a largely unopposed advance last month.
The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractured government territories. But the STC’s offensive angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich Gulf powers at loggerheads.
Following repeated warnings and airstrikes on an alleged UAE weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday.
Mohammed Abdulmalik, head of the STC in Wadi Hadramaut and Hadramaut Desert, said seven air strikes hit the Al-Khasha military camp.
Further strikes targeted other sites in the region and the airport and military base in Seiyun, STC military sources and eyewitnesses told AFP.
Reyad Khames, a resident of a village near Al-Khasha, said: “Saudi planes are chasing STC fighters. We don’t know what type of aircraft they are -- we just see flashes and explosions hitting checkpoints, clearing the way for the (Saudi-backed) forces to advance.”
Friday’s deaths are the first from coalition fire since the STC’s campaign began.
The separatists’ military spokesman said it was in an “existential” war with Saudi-supported forces, characterising it as a fight against radical Islamism -- a longtime preoccupation of the UAE.
The air raids came shortly after pro-Saudi forces launched a campaign to “peacefully” take control of military sites in Hadramawt.
“This operation is not a declaration of war, nor an attempt to escalate tensions,” Hadramawt governor Salem Al-Khanbashi, also leader of the province’s Saudi-backed forces, was quoted as saying by the Saba Net news agency.
Saudi sources confirmed the strikes were carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which nominally includes the UAE and was formed in 2015 in a vain attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s north.
A source close to the Saudi military warned the strikes “will not stop until the Southern Transitional Council withdraws from the two governorates”.
The wealthy Gulf states formed the backbone of the military coalition aimed at ousting the Houthis, who forced the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and seized areas including most of Yemen’s population.
But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place and the Saudis and Emiratis are backing different factions in the government-held territories.
Yemen’s Aden-based government comprises a fractious coalition of groups including the STC, united by their opposition to the Houthis.
The UAE, which withdrew most of its troops from Yemen in 2019, pledged to pull out the remainder after Tuesday’s coalition airstrikes on an alleged weapons shipment at Mukalla port, despite denying it contained arms.
On Friday, a UAE government official confirmed all troops had left, adding that Abu Dhabi “remains committed to dialogue, de-escalation, and internationally supported processes as the only sustainable path to peace”.
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