Southern Transitional Council calls Oct. 14 mass rally and declares popular mobilisation

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ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council said on Sunday it would hold a mass rally on Oct. 14 and launch a campaign of popular mobilisation in the south.

The announcement came in a statement issued after an extraordinary expanded meeting of the council’s central and local bodies in Aden, the interim capital.

The meeting was convened under authorisation from Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the council’s president and supreme commander of the southern armed forces, the statement said.

The council named the event the Million-Man March for General Popular Mobilisation in Defence of the Arab South and Its National Cause.

It said the march would be held in Aden and across southern governorates, from al-Mahra in the east to Bab al-Mandab in the west.

The date marks the 63rd anniversary of the October 14 revolution, which southern Yemenis observe as the start of the 1963 armed revolt against British rule.

Participants reviewed political and security developments and discussed measures to widen public engagement behind the council’s objectives, according to the statement.

It said the mobilisation is intended to preserve what it called the gains of the south, and its security and sovereignty.

The statement named the Houthi movement, what it described as Iranian expansionist efforts, terrorist groups and external interference as threats facing the region.

It also called for the dissolution of coordinating councils in southern governorates, which it characterised as attempts to reinstate occupation.

The council’s stated political goal is the restoration of a federal southern state.

This account rests on the council’s own statement, as carried by Yemeni outlets. Yemen Herald found no independent account of the closed meeting, and no other party has confirmed what was decided there.

The characterisations in the statement are the council’s own. Other parties to Yemen’s conflict describe the same events differently, and Iran has denied arming the Houthis.

The Southern Transitional Council was formed on May 11, 2017, and has been led by al-Zubaidi since.

Al-Zubaidi has sat on the Presidential Leadership Council since it was formed in April 2022, when Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers to it.

The internationally recognised government, of which the council’s president is part, has not endorsed separation.

South Yemen became independent in 1967 and united with the north in 1990.

The announcement came the same day that Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the Presidential Leadership Council, declared the start of military operations to retake Houthi-held territory.

Al-Alimi said he had instructed the armed forces and all military formations to begin their assigned missions, and renewed an offer of amnesty to fighters who lay down their weapons.

Fighting has escalated along the Red Sea coast. Houthi forces seized the port city of Mokha on Sept. 10 and 11 and then took Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to Security Council Report, a research group that tracks the UN body.

Those operations gave the group control of Yemen’s west coast, the same record states.

Government forces said they retook highland positions and Mount Qarfan in Taiz governorate on Sept. 21 and 22.

Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council in September that the war had entered a “dangerous phase.”

He briefed an emergency meeting of the council on Sept. 10, and Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari briefed a second on Sept. 15.

The council issued a press statement on Sept. 18 condemning Houthi attacks and the military escalation.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Sept. 24 that at least 125 civilians had been killed and wounded and 125,000 people displaced since early August.

The UN refugee agency recorded about 3,000 people crossing to Djibouti.

The UN humanitarian plan for Yemen, issued in March, put more than 22 million people in need of aid and 18.3 million as acutely food insecure.

It recorded 5.2 million people displaced inside the country and sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million of them.

More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely, the plan states.

Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is one of the world’s busiest shipping chokepoints.

Houthi missile and drone attacks on southern Saudi Arabia on Sept. 8 injured 73 people and damaged energy facilities, according to Security Council Report.

Strikes on Sept. 15 and 16 caused a fire at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the same record states.

Saudi air defences intercepted a drone reported to be heading toward Mecca during those strikes.

Türk renewed a demand on Sept. 24 for the release of 73 UN staff detained in Houthi-held areas.

The Presidential Leadership Council has eight members and has been based in Aden since its formation.

Accounts cited by Security Council Report said Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisers supported the Houthi advance on the coast.

Fighting around Taiz city intensified in late September, the same record states.

The October 14 anniversary is marked each year across the southern governorates.

Hani bin Burayk serves as the council’s vice president.

South24, a research centre that covers southern Yemen, recorded events marking the 62nd anniversary of the October 14 revolution in Hadramout last year.