The Southern identity - Hadhramaut

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The Undermining of South Arabia’s Security and Identity – Who Stands to exploit?

South Eye Editing | Analysis - Ameen Alaiani

In the liberated southern governorates, a dangerous pattern is emerging: the deliberate fragmentation of southern identity and security through the creation of tribal or regional alliances. These groups, often framed as advocates for "rights-based demands," conceal political agendas funded by northern partisan interests and externally legitimized. Their true aim is to dismantle southern cohesion and obstruct its political aspirations at a critical historical juncture.

This comes at a time when collective efforts should be directed toward confronting the common Houthi enemy, unifying resources, and marching toward Sana’a supported logistically, financially, and politically by international and regional allies, including even northern factions. Instead, what we witness today is the proliferation of divisive entities that do little to liberate Sana’a but everything to fracture southern cohesion. These contradictions unmistakably benefit one party: the Iranian-backed Houthis and their Muslim Brotherhood collaborators.

While U.S. and regional efforts align to weaken the Houthis, a parallel project unfolds funding and exporting chaos to southern governorates. Northern-aligned elites, often under the guise of "rights activism," are deployed to dismantle southern cohesion. This occurs even as the real battle demands dismantling the Houthis’ tribal strongholds, which ironically form the backbone of the northern "legitimacy" forces now defending the Houthi project.

The Southern National Project: A Target for Sabotage

Southerners allied with northern forces—whether knowingly or not must recognize a hard truth: the campaigns to fracture the southern project (be they northern Yemeni, Arab, regional, or international) cannot erase a collective identity forged through shared suffering. The south endured annexation, marginalization, plunder, torture, and cultural erasure after the 1994 war. Its identity—rooted in language, heritage, urbanism, and military tradition remains unbroken.

The south is not merely a region but a state with defined borders, sovereignty, and a federal vision, paid for in blood. Key historical markers include:

1990–1994: From Unity to Occupation

The 1990 "unity" with North Yemen quickly devolved into military occupation by 1994, when northern forces bombed Aden capital and looted southern resources under ideological pretexts. This was not a war against "secessionists" but a full-scale annexation to exploit southern oil (e.g., Hadramawt and Shabwa) and divert wealth to northern infrastructure.

Armed Struggle: Groups like "Mooj" and "Hatm" resisted northern hegemony in the early 2000s.

The Peaceful Movement: By 2007, mass protests under the Southern Movement demanded independence, met with northern repression and accusations of "treason."

The Southern Transitional Council (STC): Formed in 2017 with popular mandate, the STC became a recognized political entity after liberating Aden capital from the Houthis with Arab Coalition support.

Northern parties like al-Islah (Muslim Brotherhood) and remnants of the General People’s Congress finance southern figures to sow discord, branding the STC as "socialist" or "separatist" while ignoring Houthi-Iranian collusion.

The rhetoric of "sacred unity" is weaponized to smear southerners, even as the Houthis—backed by Iran tear Yemen apart.

Conflicts in Shabwa and Hadhramaut are engineered to control oil revenues, which then fund northern agendas or even Houthi operations. UN reports confirm northern networks smuggle southern oil via Hodeidah and Marib.

The Riyadh Agreement (2022) acknowledged southern grievances but subordinated them to a "comprehensive solution," delaying justice. As the Presidential Council is viewed as a northern façade, lacking southern representation.

Houthi negotiations exclude southern voices, despite the STC controlling 95% of historic South Yemen.

While Hadhramaut's million-strong independence rallies reflect southern cohesion, northern actors push a "Hadrami Council" to pressure the STC into concessions. These tribal entities funded by northern money are designed to manufacture division where none exists.

Hence, the south must negotiate internationally as an independent entity (e.g., Riyadh’s "1×2" formula). Any southern factions taking northern money will be sidelined by history. But If the Arab Coalition treats the Houthis as an "existential threat" while dismissing southern self-determination, it will lose southern trust permanently.

Non-Negotiables:

Full independence from Mahra to Bab al-Mandab on pre-1990 borders.

International pressure to link any settlement to self-determination.

An end to northern-funded southern puppets eroding cohesion.

The clear truth is that the south is no longer part of Sana’a’s equation, and Sana’a can never rule it again. Solutions must acknowledge two distinct peoples, fostering competition through development not recycled crises. Justice begins by admitting the north’s oppression: its wars, resource theft, and ideological violence branded southerners as "atheists" and "traitors."

To restore rights to their people is the only just solution. Anything less is a call to arms a defense of land, faith, and dignity that southerners will answer, as they always have.