Southern Transitional Council leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi calls for mass rallies in Aden
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — The leader of the Southern Transitional Council, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, called for mass rallies in Aden and other southern provinces on Wednesday, the council said.
The call was issued in a statement published on al-Zubaidi’s account on the X platform, according to the council.
It billed the event the Million-Man March for General Popular Mobilisation to Defend South Arabia and its National Cause.
Al-Zubaidi said the rallies were meant to support the Southern Armed Forces and to defend what the council describes as its national project.
The statement said the call carried out resolutions passed at an expanded extraordinary meeting of the council’s central and local bodies.
The council said that meeting was held in Aden on Oct. 4 and approved a general popular mobilisation.
The account of the rally call rests on the council’s own statement. No independent confirmation of the call has been published.
Al-Zubaidi declared the mobilisation in a televised address on Tuesday, according to Al-Monitor. The news site said it was his first television appearance since January.
He urged southerners to fight Houthi forces and to defend the southern political entity, the same report said.
He also called for the campaign against Houthi forces, Iranian influence and extremist groups to continue, according to that account.
Al-Zubaidi condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, the report said.
The council leader said the march was intended to safeguard the security and sovereignty of the south against what he described as threats from the Houthis and an Iranian expansionist project.
The Houthis deny that they act on Iran’s behalf.
Al-Zubaidi praised the performance of the Southern Armed Forces, the statement said.
Yemen’s civil service ministry declared Wednesday a public holiday.
The date marks the anniversary of the revolt against British rule in the south that began on Oct. 14, 1963.
South Yemen was an independent state from 1967 until it united with the north in 1990.
The council said in December that it had taken control of several south-eastern provinces, according to a House of Commons Library briefing published this year.
A Saudi-backed counter-offensive by the Presidential Leadership Council reversed those gains in January, the briefing said.
The council’s ministers were removed from the Presidential Leadership Council in early January, according to the briefing.
It said the group announced its dissolution around Jan. 9, a decision some members disputed, and that the body has since been renamed the Transitional Council of South Arabia.
Al-Monitor continued to describe al-Zubaidi this week as the leader of the Southern Transitional Council, the name used in the council’s own statement.
The United Arab Emirates announced in January that it would withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen, the briefing said. Analysts cited in it doubted the country would disengage completely.
The Presidential Leadership Council replaced former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2022. The briefing describes it as an eight-member body that included the southern council until this year.
Saudi Arabia has reduced its military role in Yemen in recent years while continuing to back the Presidential Leadership Council, according to the briefing.
The Houthis announced a new phase in their campaign against Saudi Arabia in June, centred on the blockade of their air and sea ports.
They declared a naval blockade of the kingdom on July 20 and later an air blockade, the briefing said.
Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi territory this year were the first since 2023, according to the briefing. Saudi air strikes on Yemen were the first since 2022.
The Houthis have taken several areas along the Red Sea coast, and control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait is disputed.
A planned prisoner exchange stalled in July as tensions rose, the briefing said.
Britain announced defensive support for Saudi Arabia in September, including one Royal Air Force Voyager refuelling aircraft.
The Saudi-led coalition struck energy sites in Sanaa on Tuesday after warning residents to leave the area.
The Associated Press, citing witnesses, reported several explosions in the capital after the al-Sabaha central fuel station was hit.
The coalition said the operation was intended to neutralise the Houthis’ ability to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.
It was the coalition’s first evacuation order in Sanaa since the war flared in July, Middle East Eye reported.
The coalition said it intercepted at least three missiles and two drones over Riyadh on Tuesday.
Explosions were also reported in Dammam and Dhahran on Tuesday night.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said any attack on Sanaa would be answered in Riyadh.
Saudi authorities said a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday killed 13 people.
The United Nations moved its main Yemen offices to Aden in September 2025.
Its humanitarian response plan for 2026, issued in March, said more than 22 million people needed assistance.
The plan said 18.3 million people were acutely food insecure.
It recorded more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
The plan counted 5.2 million internally displaced people and sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.
The council’s statement did not say how long the mobilisation would last.
It did not give a start time for Wednesday’s rallies.
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