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Yemen’s south to announce independence on Saturday

Wednesday, 18 May 2016 6:14 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 18 May 2016 6:14 PM ]

File photo of Saleh Yahya Saied, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Revolutionary Peaceful Movement for the Liberation and Independence of the South

The leader of the separatist Southern Movement in Yemen says the group will announce the secession of the south from the rest of the Arab country and declare independence in a ceremony in the city of Aden on Saturday.

According to al-Mashhad-al-Yemeni news website, Saleh Yahya Saied, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Revolutionary Peaceful Movement for the Liberation and Independence of the South, said time has come to announce the breakaway from Yemeni unification as “most of the territories of the south have been liberated and the establishment of a southern national army has been launched.”

He added that the independence document will also be unveiled in the ceremony on May 21.

The port city of Aden, Yemen’s second largest city, used to be the capital of a once independent South Yemen before unification in 1990.

Saied further said that the document includes the formation of a national council for a transition period of two and a half years and an interim government which will be followed by elections in the south as well as the formation of a presidential council. The council will be comprised of six members where each of them will represent one of the provinces of Aden, Abyan, Lahij, Hadhramaut, Mahrah and Shabwah.

The news comes as Yemen has been under airstrikes by Saudi Arabia since the regime in Riyadh launched its fatal campaign against the impoverished country on March 26, 2015, in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

More than 9,400 people have been killed in the Saudi airstrikes ever since.

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