Aden (South24 Center)

The Southern Transitional Council (STC) announced on Friday the launch of a peaceful escalation program against what it described as “Saudi guardianship and its tools,” calling on its supporters to take part in mass rallies in Aden and Hadramout on July 7.

The call represents the latest phase of political escalation between the STC, Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni government aligned with it, amid growing tensions over the future of South Yemen, deteriorating public services, and legal and security measures targeting STC leaders, activists, and journalists.

In a statement issued on Friday, July 3, STC spokesperson Anwar Al-Tamimi said South Yemen is passing through a “pivotal phase” in the course of its national cause. He added that what he described as the “tools of hegemony and occupation” had crossed all limits in targeting the people of the South, their cause, the STC, and its leadership.

According to the statement, the campaign against the STC began in early January by targeting the Council as the political entity representing the Southern cause, before expanding to include its political and field leaders. It then shifted, the statement said, toward exhausting the population through the collapse of basic services, worsening living conditions, and a deepening economic crisis.

The STC accused unnamed parties of practicing systematic exclusion and mass dismissals against Southern leaders within state institutions. It also accused them of seeking to dismantle Southern forces and turn them into instruments of repression against Southerners and their political project.

The statement said recent days had seen a move toward “silencing voices” through the pursuit of activists and journalists and the fabrication of charges against them, in an attempt to suppress those exposing what is happening to public opinion.

The announcement comes after arrest warrants were issued against several STC leaders, including Assistant Secretary-General Waddah Al-Halmi, Acting President of the National Assembly Nasr Harhara, Head of the Political Department Shukri Baali, and the head of the Council’s executive body in Shabwah, Lahmar bin Ali Laswar.

It also follows summonses issued by the Lahj Security Directorate against five media professionals and activists in the governorate, without clarifying the reasons for the move. Local sources said the summonses came against the backdrop of their participation in recent popular protests in the city of Al-Houta.

The STC said the pursuit of political leaders, activists, and journalists coincided with attempts to create entities under Southern or local names, including what it described as “coordination councils in the governorates.” The Council said these moves aim to strike at the Southern cause, weaken the STC, and undermine its popular base.

As the first step in its escalation program, the Council called for participation in the July 7 million-man rally in Aden and Hadramout. The date coincides with the anniversary of the end of the 1994 summer war, which many Southerners regard as the beginning of the “occupation of the South.”

The Council said the rallies are intended to send a message of rejection against what it described as attempts to reproduce the occupation through Saudi guardianship and its tools. It added that Southerners would take to the streets to reaffirm their adherence to the political statement and constitutional declaration issued on January 2, as well as the Southern National Charter agreed in 2023.

The July 7 call comes less than three weeks after mass rallies were held in Aden, Mukalla, and Seiyun on June 20 under slogans rejecting guardianship and opposing occupation.

Those events took place amid heavy security deployment, attempts to remove STC-related banners in Aden, and reports of live fire during attempts to disperse protesters in Seiyun.