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Yemen: home of opposition leader raided by security forces 

January 5, 2023 at 12:27 pm

A Yemeni flag waves in the city of Taez [AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP/Getty Images]

Government security forces have raided the home of an opposition leader in Al-Mahra Governorate, Yemen. Mudarm Abu Siraj is the head of the political office of the Southern Revolutionary Movement Council and lives in Al-Ghaidah, the capital of the governorate. He is opposed to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.

Abu Siraj quoted an informed source as saying that the security forces were linked to the intelligence services in Al-Mahra. He confirmed that members of Al-Mahrah tribes intervened with force, preventing the security officers from storming the headquarters in which he lives. He believes that they intended to arrest or kill him, and added that he is now staying with a senior tribal sheikh.

His statement noted that the attack came in the context of the actions of the Southern Revolutionary Movement Council with local and international organisations, demanding the release of kidnapped detainee Asaad Sakina, and other individuals detained by irregular security agencies in the interim capital, Aden, and other governorates.

At the end of last December, forces affiliated with the Abu Dhabi-backed Southern Transitional Council kidnapped Sakina, a member of the political bureau of the Southern Revolutionary Movement as part of a series of operations targeting all leaders and forces opposed to the council in the south of Yemen.

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