In the dead of night on 6 January, the leader of the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) fled Yemen. Aidarous al-Zubaidi boarded a vessel at the port of Aden and was transported to Somaliland before being flown to Abu Dhabi via Mogadishu, reportedly with the help of UAE Major General Awad al-Ahbabi.
The midnight escape marked a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the UAE-backed STC. Days earlier the group appeared poised to consolidate control over swathes of strategic and oil-rich territories in Yemen’s east, positioning itself to exert leverage on the internationally recognized government (MEES, 5 December 2025). On 3 January, during its short-lived power grab, the STC announced a Constitutional Declaration of the South Arabian State, reviving the claim to an independent South Yemen which last existed before the country’s unification in 1990 (MEES, 28 May 1990). (CONTINUED - 1470 WORDS)
