Southern Transitional Council seizes control across southern Yemen

• Southern Transitional Council (STC) claims control across southern Yemen, including Aden.
• Senior government figures, including the prime minister, have left Aden amid STC advances.
• STC launched a military operation called “Promising Future” to consolidate forces and territory.

Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) announced Monday that it now controls large swathes of the south, including the strategic port city of Aden, long the seat of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government.

The STC said senior officials from the government, including Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, and Prime Minister Salem Saleh Bin Braik, had departed Aden, though the council emphasized it had not forced them to leave.

Senior STC official Amr al-Bidh described the advance as part of a military campaign dubbed “Promising Future,” launched last week. “The eight southern governorates are under the protection of the Southern Armed Forces,” he said, adding, “We are concentrating on unifying the operational theater 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, historically supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during Yemen’s decade-long civil war, has long clashed with factions of the Saudi-backed government, which relocated to Aden after the Iran-aligned Houthi movement seized the capital Sanaa in 2014. Since 2022, the STC participated in a power-sharing administration under Saudi-backed initiatives designed to unify anti-Houthi forces.

Al-Alimi condemned the STC’s actions, stating they “undermine the legitimacy of the internationally recognised government” and breach power-sharing agreements. The STC’s territorial gains span key provinces including Hadramout and Al-Mahra, vital for trade and smuggling routes, with Saudi-backed forces reportedly withdrawing from multiple positions, including Perim Island and the presidential palace in Aden.

A UAE official said the country “is in line with Saudi Arabia in supporting a political process” based on Gulf-backed initiatives and UN resolutions but did not address the STC’s territorial moves.

The STC’s rapid advance signals a major shift in southern Yemen, where the group seeks greater autonomy. Yemen’s civil war, which reached a stalemate in 2022, had seen a brief period of calm that raised hopes for reconciliation between the Houthis in the north and the Saudi-backed government in the south. The latest developments suggest a new phase of uncertainty in the region.