# Southern Transitional Council The **Southern Transitional Council** (STC) is the main separatist movement in southern [[Yemen]]. It wants to restore the independent state of South Yemen that existed until the 1990 merger with the north. Aidarous al-Zubaidi founded it on May 11, 2017, weeks after Yemen's president fired him as governor of Aden, and the [[United Arab Emirates]] funded and armed the forces aligned with it. For eight years it was both a member of the Saudi-led coalition against the [[Houthis]] and the largest threat to that coalition's unity. ## A war inside the war | Date | Event | |---|---| | Apr–May 2017 | President Hadi dismisses Zubaidi; after mass protests in Aden, Zubaidi announces the council | | Aug 2019 | STC forces seize Aden from the Saudi-backed government | | Nov 5, 2019 | The Riyadh Agreement, brokered by Saudi Arabia, brings the STC into the government on paper | | Apr 7, 2022 | Zubaidi becomes a vice president of the new Presidential Leadership Council | | Early Dec 2025 | STC forces seize Hadramawt and al-Mahra; Zubaidi announces plans for the institutions of a future southern state | | Dec 30, 2025 | Saudi jets bomb a weapons shipment at Mukalla that Riyadh says the Emirates sent to the STC | | Jan 2026 | Saudi-backed forces retake Hadramawt, al-Mahra and Aden | | Jan 7, 2026 | Zubaidi skips talks in Riyadh; the leadership council expels him and refers him for prosecution for high treason. The Saudi-led coalition says he left by boat for Somaliland and flew on to Abu Dhabi | | Jan 9, 2026 | The STC's secretary-general announces its dissolution on Saudi state television | ## Dissolved, or not The dissolution was read out in Riyadh by a member of a delegation of more than 50 STC officials whom their colleagues described as held incommunicado. The council's spokesman said only the full council under its president could take such a step, and officials outside Saudi Arabia called the statement made under duress. The Saudi ambassador to Yemen called it "courageous." The movement did not disappear. Its supporters held rallies in Aden, and its remnants have been reported operating since as the Southern Resistance. In October 2026 separatists again demanded a referendum on restoring the pre-1990 border. *Foreign Policy* reported that month that the STC "retains influence in southern Yemen" and has signaled it will not fight the Houthis outside the old southern borders unless Saudi Arabia accepts a referendum. ## Why it matters Hadramawt is Yemen's largest province and shares a border of roughly 700 kilometers with Saudi Arabia. A separatist state there, funded from Abu Dhabi, was the outcome Riyadh was not willing to accept, and its response is the event that turned a managed disagreement into the [[Saudi-Emirati Rivalry]]. The same pattern, an Emirati-backed force seeking to split or supplant a recognized government, recurs in [[Sudan]] and [[Somaliland]]. The Houthi offensive of autumn 2026 has made the STC's fighters valuable again. The units the Emirates trained, above all the Giants Brigades, are regarded as among the most effective anti-Houthi forces, and the reported Saudi-Emirati arrangement of October 2026 is about paying them. ## See Also - [[Yemeni Civil War]] · [[Yemen]] · [[Houthis]] · [[Saudi-Emirati Rivalry]] - [[United Arab Emirates]] · [[Saudi Arabia]] · [[Mohammed bin Zayed]] · [[Somaliland]]