Aden (South24 Center)

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The Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Sunday (March 29) called for a peaceful mass rally in the capital, Aden, on Wednesday morning, protesting the continued closure of its main headquarters and accusing what it described as the “de facto authority” of attempting to politically target and sideline the council.

In a statement, the STC said its leadership had, from the outset of the closures, engaged in contacts and meetings with local authorities, the government, and the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) in Maashiq, as well as military and civilian officials, in an effort to determine the reasons behind the move and secure the reopening of its offices.

The council said those efforts “were met with a collective denial of responsibility,” noting that various parties denied issuing closure orders while “shifting the blame” onto PLC member Abdulrahman al-Mahrami. The STC described this as evidence of “a systematic effort to target the Southern Transitional Council and exclude it from the political landscape.”

Against this backdrop, the council called on its supporters and the broader southern public to rally on Wednesday (April 1) in front of the National Assembly building in Tawahi district, reaffirming their rejection of what it described as “policies of repression and restriction,” and demanding the reopening of its offices “without conditions.”

The statement held southern political and military leaders within the “de facto authority,” as well as all parties involved in the closures, fully responsible for any consequences resulting from the escalation.

The STC also said that targeting peaceful political activity, closing offices, and restricting public mobilization form part of a broader effort aimed—according to its description—at undermining “the political representative of the Southern cause.” It added that these measures coincide with attempts to dismantle southern armed forces and turn them into a “functional tool” in external conflicts.

In a related development, staff of the STC’s General Secretariat continued a protest on Sunday outside their closed headquarters in Aden.

Security forces had forcibly closed, on February 22, the headquarters of the National Assembly and the STC’s Foreign Affairs Authority in Tawahi district. The measure was later extended to include the General Secretariat, effectively rendering the council’s three main institutions non-operational.

The planned rally on Wednesday marks the first direct call for public mobilization by the STC in Aden since the closures began, reflecting a shift from limited institutional protest to broader popular mobilization.