Saudi-led coalition says head of Yemen’s separatists fled to unknown location

The Saudi-backed coalition in Yemen said on Wednesday that Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), fled to an unknown location and did not board a plane scheduled to fly to Riyadh.

Al-Zubaidi was expected to travel to Saudi Arabia days after the internationally recognised Yemeni government said it had asked Riyadh to host a forum to discuss the southern issue, a move seen as a possible step towards easing the fighting.

Recent clashes between the Saudi-backed government and UAE-backed southern separatists have strained relations between the two Gulf states.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said a plane carrying a large number of senior separatist leaders took off after a delay of more than three hours, without al-Zubaidi on board and with no information about his whereabouts. He said that during the delay, “information became available to the legitimate government and the coalition that Aidarous al-Zubaidi had moved large forces, including armoured vehicles, combat vehicles, and heavy and light weapons with ammunition”.

Al-Malki said al-Zubaidi “fled to a location that is still unknown, leaving members and leaders of the Southern Transitional Council without any details about him, after distributing weapons and ammunition to dozens of elements inside Aden, led by Momen al-Saqqaf and Mukhtar al-Nubi, with the aim of causing unrest in Aden in the coming hours”.

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