ADEN: Thousands of people took to the streets of Aden in southern Yemen on Saturday in support of the country’s main separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council, which denied it was planning to disband.

Some held up photos of STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who has fled the country, while others chanted “southerner, raise your voice, independence or death”, a witness said.

People took to the streets despite Saudi-backed groups urging them on Friday not to do so. The STC seized parts of southern and eastern Yemen in December in advances that heightened tensions with Saudi Arabia.

“We have taken to the streets again… No one can silence us… Not Saudi Arabia, nor any other party or country,” one man who took to the streets said.

Another said: “This large public gathering is a powerful message and a popular referendum in the south for the Southern Transitional Council.” The armed forces of the rival, Saudi-backed government said it would “strike firmly and decisively against anyone who seeks to tamper with security or disrupt public order”, without making any reference to the protests.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE used to work together in a coalition battling Houthis in Yemen’s civil war, but the STC advances exposed their rivalry, bringing into focus big differences on a wide range of issues across the Middle East ranging from geopolitics to oil output.

Saudi-backed fighters have largely retaken the areas of southern and eastern Yemen that the STC seized, and an STC delegation has travelled to the Saudi capital Riyadh for talks.

But STC leader al-Zubaidi skipped the planned meetings and fled Yemen on Wednesday. In an announcement broadcast on Saudi state media on Friday, one of the group’s members said the STC had decided to disband. But in a statement issued on Saturday, the STC said it had held an “extraordinary meeting” following the announcement in Riyadh and declared it “null and void”, saying it had been made “under coercion and pressure”.

The group also said its members in Riyadh had been detained and were being “forced to issue statements”.

The STC reiterated calls for mass protests in southern cities on Saturday, warning against any attempts that target the group’s “peaceful activities”.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2026