A separatist group in Yemen has announced plan to begin self-ruled administration in the southern part of the country.
While disclosing this in a statement on Sunday April 26, 2020, the Southern Transitional Council declared a state of emergency and said it would “self-govern” the key southern port city of Aden and other southern provinces.
The council accused Yemen’s Saudi-backed government of corruption and mismanagement. The STC is supported by the United Arab Emirates.
“The Southern Transitional Council announces a self-administration rule in the south, as of midnight Saturday, April 25th 2020,” the council’s statement reads.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s internationally recognised government decried the move, stressing that it could trigger dangerous and catastrophic consequences.
The division between the two supposed allies is another facet of the country’s complicated civil war.
On one side are the separatists and on the other are forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Both have fought together in the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore power to Hadi’s government after it was removed from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis the previous year.
