A group of activists in Lebanon who have been operating since Oct 2023 to help displaced people get food, shelter, and medicine have just created a new fundraiser. Please donate what you can.
www.chuffed.org/project/1719...
Carol Burnett is a national treasure.
Question remains whether this speaks for all of the STC's leadership (Aiderous al-Zubaidi, of course, is still at large) or just a faction but in any case, another blow for a group that seemed ascendant just a few weeks ago.
Yemeni television currently announcing that the STC has agreed to dissolve itself.
All this being said, would be loath to underestimate:
-risks of a power vacuum in Aden and other parts of the country previously under STC control
-the extent that this risks deepening decades old resentments and feelings of marginalization across the formerly independent south (STC or no STC).
Not since Icarus has there been as potent a parable about the dangers of flying too close to the sun…
An STC delegation is theoretically in Riyadh for a Saudi-led "South-South dialogue;" Zubaidi was supposed to join but appears to have skipped the flight.
The inter-PLC conflict--which, of course, interplays in the escalation of wider UAE-KSA frictions overnight--continues to escalate, with STC leader Aiderous al-Zubaidi sacked from the PLC and charged with treason as Saudi airstrikes reportedly target allied forces in the STC stronghold of al-Dhale.
(In a statement on bluesky, Adam Baron announces a moratorium on "wow, I guess Yemen is off to quite a start on 2026" jokes)
In a televised statement, STC leader Aiderous al-Zubaidi has announced a plan for a two-year transitional period ending in a referendum on a return to independence in South Yemen.
Post-strike videos coming out of Hadramawt at the moment are quite nuts, as one would expect.
The Nordic countries simultaneously gave the world a model of Democratic Socialism, Acne Studios and Noma.
This whole line "Democratic Socialism means you can't have nice things" argument is so dumb.
STC-aligned media reporting three apparent Saudi airstrikes on their positions in Saiyun, Wadi Hadramawt (Yemen).
Reports of Saudi strikes on STC-held military positions in Saiyun.
Gird your loins for an intense 2026 i guess.
(26 is thirteen tiwice so I guess the numbers were warning us).
The situation in Hadramawt has resembled a slow motion car crash for at least the better part of a year: everyone knew the escalation was coming; key stakeholders remained either inert or quietly fanned building flames.
Either way, here we are.
More escalation in Yemen today, with reports of airstrikes amidst clashes between (Saudi-backed) National Shield forces and (UAE-backed) STC-aligned fighters in Hadramawt.
APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — United Arab Emirates says it will withdraw its remaining forces in #Yemen.
Tensions between the UAE and Saudi over Yemen (and other regional files for that matter) have been building for quite a while.
Hard not to see today's Saudi strike on a UAE weapons shipment in Mukalla as a rubicon being crossed.
The traditional Christmastime Yemen escalation is off the chain this year.
APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia says it bombs #Yemen port city of Mukalla over shipment of weapons for separatists that arrived from UAE.
Clashes between STC-aligned forces and local armed elements in al-Shihr, Hadramawt province.
(The crisis in Eastern Yemen continues...).
Solid write up of continuing escalation in South Yemen by @salehalbatati.bsky.social, featuring some thoughts from my end.
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
The annual Yemen Christmas escalation.
O beatus ortus ille,
virgo cum puerpera
Edidit nostram salutem,
feta Sancto Spiritu,
Et puer redemptor orbis
os sacratum protulit.
Sæculorum sæculis.
Pope Leo said in a Christmas Eve sermon that the story of Jesus being born in a stable because there was no room at an inn should remind Christians that refusing to help the poor and strangers today is tantamount to rejecting God himself. For @reuters.com
Meanwhile, in the midst of the confusion, security contacts say AQ-aligned fighters are resuming attacks. One bombing targeting a vehicle belonging to STC-aligned troops between al-Abr and Shabwa yesterday; another today.
(File under: a potential harbinger of not good things to come).
Contacts on the ground say there's been a large scale withdraw of Saudi troops from Aden, Mayun and Sauyun. Follows the withdraw of the ROYG-aligned presidential guard from Aden's Maashiq compound (the seat of Yemen's internationally recognized government).
This leaves the STC and its allies in de facto control of nearly all of the area within the borders former PDRY (ie South Yemen). A key 48 hours for facts being established on the ground...
The wave expands beyond Hadramawt:
Seems STC-aligned forces have taken hold of the bulk of al-Mahra province--extending to the border with Oman--overnight after a handover deal with Yemen National Army leaders from the al-Ghayda Axis.
If STC forces manage to consolidate their hold over Wadi Hadramawt, that more or less just leaves the border province of Mahra as the sole piece of the former PDRY (South Yemen) that they haven't managed to take de facto control of.
Of course, events fast moving so a lot of tbds to pass around.
