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UAE-backed gunmen seize headquarters of Yemen News Agency in Aden

June 4, 2021 at 9:34 am

Fighters loyal to Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) separatists in Yemen on 16 May 2020 [NABIL HASAN/AFP/Getty Images]

Armed men affiliated with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized the headquarters of the official Yemen News Agency (SABA) in the provisional capital, Aden, storming it and expelling its employees on Tuesday.

The news agency’s management in Aden said in a statement on Wednesday evening that “an armed group affiliated with the STC stormed the SABA headquarters in Aden and threw out the security guards and employees present in the building.”

The statement indicated that an armed group had come to the agency on Tuesday and said that they had orders from the STC President, Aidarus Al-Zubaidi, to seize the building and manage it under the name of Aden News Agency for the State of Arabic South.

The STC seeks the secession of southern Yemen from the north, which has been widely rejected by political parties and public opinion.

Since August 2019, Aden has been under the STC’s security and military control.

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