DUBAI, Dec 8 - A separatist group in the south of Yemen says it has seized large territory from the internationally recognised government, including some oil fields, bringing fresh instability years after most fighting subsided in the country's civil war.
The Southern Transitional Council, or STC, which has been backed by the United Arab Emirates, took over the eastern province of Hadramout last week. In a surprise move, Saudi-backed forces pulled back from the oil-rich province with little resistance, according to witnesses.
The move threatens to further fragment the country where a civil war reached a stalemate in 2022. The relative calm of recent years had raised hopes of peace between the Houthi movement that controls the most populated areas mainly in the north and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government based in the south.
The head of the STC, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, held a meeting in the southern port of Aden on Saturday in which he welcomed "the victories and gains" in Hadramout and al-Mahra provinces, according to a statement published on the group's website.
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which were once jointly part of a coalition against the Houthis but later diverged to back rival sides, did not respond to requests for comment.
The STC did not reply to a request for further details about its advance, including exactly which territory it now controls, whether it met resistance from Saudi-backed groups or whether its advance was greenlit by the UAE.
The STC separatist forces were initially part of the Sunni Muslim Saudi-led alliance that intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis. But the STC turned on the government and sought self-rule in the south, including the major port city of Aden where the Saudi-backed administration is headquartered.
Northern and southern Yemen were divided into separate states from 1967-1990.
(Writing by Nayera Abdallah and Michael GeorgyEditing by Peter Graff)
