SANAA, Yemen / ISTANBUL

Yemen’s main separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), has continued to consolidate its military control over the country’s oil-rich Hadramout province for nearly three weeks, reiterating its refusal on Sunday to withdraw troops from the area.

The move comes despite mounting local and regional calls for the STC to pull its forces out of Hadramout and the neighboring province of Mahra, which borders Oman, amid warnings that the deployment could erode the authority of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Hadramaut and Mahra are among Yemen’s largest provinces, together accounting for nearly half the country’s landmass – about 555,000 square kilometres – and have largely been spared direct fighting between government forces and the Houthi group for more than a decade.

The STC forces have taken control of Hadramout province since Dec. 3, following clashes with the Hadramout Tribes Alliance and government-aligned First Military Region forces. Four days later, STC forces extended control over Mahra province, which had been under government authority.

On Sunday, Ali al-Kathiri, head of the STC’s National Assembly, held a video meeting with officials from the office of UN envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg to brief them on security and service conditions in Hadramaut.

According to the STC website, Kathiri claimed that the province has seen “normal stability” since STC forces took control of the Wadi and Desert areas on Dec. 3. He said there have been no official reports of killings, abductions or extrajudicial actions, contrary to circulating allegations.

Escaltion

Kathiri said the STC plans to ban the carrying of weapons inside cities, citing what he described as improved commercial activity without harassment. He said major roads linking Hadramaut to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Marib had stabilized after being secured.

Responding indirectly to accusations of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, Kathiri said residents from northern provinces living in Hadramaut face no harassment and continue their lives normally, adding that those who left the province did so “under no duress.”

However, the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said on Dec. 18 it documented 312 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance carried out by STC members in Hadramaut’s Wadi and Desert areas between Dec. 2 and Dec. 18.

Kathiri said local authorities continue to operate “freely” across all districts in coordination with the STC, stressing that the deployment of southern forces aimed to “secure and liberate” the Wadi and Desert areas, not to seize power.

He said bodies of soldiers killed in clashes with the First Military Region had been handed over and some detainees released, while others remain held on criminal charges.

The Yemeni army, however, said Friday that the STC is still holding the bodies of several First Military Region personnel.

Rejecting calls for a withdrawal, Kathiri said demands to pull STC forces out of Hadramaut’s Wadi and Desert areas were “unjustified,” adding there were no issues with the Nation’s Shield Forces or the Hadrami Elite Forces, which he described as “central to securing southern Yemen and countering terrorism.”

The Nation’s Shield Forces were formed in 2023 by a decision from Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi and formally fall under his command, while the Hadrami Elite Forces are aligned with the STC.

Kathiri also said conditions on the Hadramaut Plateau had returned to normal and that the state oil company PetroMasila had resumed operations under the protection of company guards and the Hadrami Elite Forces.

He said the closure of Seiyun International Airport was temporary for maintenance and security arrangements and that operations would resume soon, without giving a date. The airport was shut abruptly about two weeks ago without an official explanation.

STC defiance

Nearly three weeks after clashes erupted, the Yemeni army disclosed the names and ranks of personnel from the First Military Region killed in Hadramaut.

The army’s official website, September Net, published the names of 30 soldiers described as having died in the line of duty, including five colonels, a major, two lieutenants and several noncommissioned officers and soldiers.

The army reiterated that the bodies of some of its personnel remain in STC custody. On Dec. 13, the army said 32 of its members were killed and 45 wounded in the STC attack on Hadramaut on Dec. 3.

The Yemeni Al-Islah party, a major government-aligned political force, said the STC’s unilateral actions in eastern provinces “aim to undermine the legitimate government and establish a parallel authority outside agreed political frameworks, including the Riyadh Agreement.”

This statement came from Ibrahim al-Shami, head of foreign relations at al-Islah, who said the STC’s moves risk enabling the Houthi group to exploit internal divisions to prolong the war, according to the party’s website.

The escalation risks worsening conditions in Yemen, a country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian and economic crises, according to the UN.

As part of efforts to de-escalate tensions, a Saudi-Emirati delegation visited the presidential palace in Aden last week to discuss developments in eastern Yemen. The talks followed the STC’s disregard of Saudi calls to withdraw but have yet to produce tangible results on the ground.