While generally participating in the Saudi and UAE-led invasion of
Yemen, the separatist movement in South Yemen has long been an
unresolved issue, and looks to be coming to a head. Recent attacks on
separatist loyal troops were blamed by the leadership on Islamist groups
trying to undermine them in favor of the government.
That quickly led to a call to outright overthrow
the Saudi-backed Hadi government, and with hundreds of separatists
attending funerals of slain troops, it didn’t really require much of a
call to action for separatists to just head down to the presidential palace in Aden and take it over.
While the guards tried to stop them from doing so, killing at least five
protesters at the palace, they fairly quickly took the palace anyhow.
Yemen’s Interior Minister called it the separatists “declaration of war”
against them, and said the protest was seditious.
This could rapidly escalate into a major civil war within the ongoing
Yemen war, as well, because while the Saudis heavily back the existing
Aden-based government, the separatists are aligned with the United Arab
Emirates, who have their own major faction of loyalists.
Yemenis have been feuding and fighting each other for centuries. North vs. South, Sunni versus Shiia, US backed vs. Soviet, now Saudi backed vs. UAE or Iranian. Can’t tell who is who even with a scorecard.
It is a very rugged place and the people like to fight. Very poor, so will fight for very little pay or reward, Like Afghanistan or any remote mountainous place.
Best to avoid taking sides. The Saudis of course have long been involved though even with the vague borderlands, most of Yemen is very distant from Saudi population centers. Aden is the “capital” only on maps. I say send in John Bolton and keep him there until he sorts it all out. Might take a while…
I’ve long said that the only solution to the Yemeni Civil War is the re-separation of the North and South. Yemen is not Korea, which was divided by force. North and South Yemen have always been separate and distinct cultures. I support the South Yemeni Separatists, and the Houthis should too. Only united can they divide in peace.