The Southern people

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The Southern Cause and the Path to Lasting Peace

Analytics - منذ 20 يوم

South Eye | Analysis - Exclusive

From all governorates, the voice of the free southern people emerges as one of the most honest and steadfast. What the South is experiencing today in terms of economic collapse and deteriorating living conditions is the result of a crisis of corruption and deliberate failure. It is a direct expression of a deeper struggle over sovereignty, identity, and national rights. The reality of the South can no longer be understood through the narrow lenses of geopolitical calculations, nor through platforms that impose visions on a people who once had their place among nations with a recognized passport, clear international relations, and membership in the United Nations.

The South is not a geography without memory; it is a national political entity that had its own independent state until 1990, before entering into a unity that failed and was consumed by corruption and conflict. Since then, the people of the South have endured long phases of marginalization and systematic dismantling of their institutions and resources until they found, in the Southern Movement and the Southern Transitional Council, a political representation that reflects their national aspirations to restore the state they lost due to a barbaric Yemeni occupation.

Despite the Southerners' commitment to peaceful frameworks and clear demands, they have been subjected to undeclared collective punishments, most notably being deprived of basic services, left prey to destructive financial policies, and facing an almost complete absence of developmental solutions. With every living crisis, the misleading question arises: Is the Transitional Council to blame? But the truth confirmed by much evidence is that the pressures imposed on the South are a result of coordinated actions by Yemeni forces using tools of pressure against a Southern national project that chose to stand firmly with the demands of its people.

Imposing solutions on peoples, against their will, has never been a viable option for building peace. International experiences confirm that respecting peoples is the foundation of stability. In Scotland, the people were given the right to a referendum. In South Sudan, independence came through a UN-led process. In East Timor, the will of the people was prioritized over calculations. So why is the South the exception?

The South must be addressed as a people with a history, identity, grievance, and former state. It is the duty of regional partners, the international community, influential states, and human rights organizations to open their eyes to this popular cause and to understand that supporting the South's chosen path does not threaten stability, but rather guarantees it.

The South does not seek political charity but demands a fair process to restore its right to determine its future, whether through a UN-supervised referendum, through equal negotiations, or through direct recognition. The people of the South will not merely be part of a solution but will be the foundation of any solution. What the people of the South propose today is a path built on recognition and mutual respect, laying the groundwork for sustainable partnerships that enhance regional security and respect the interests of all.

Silence or denial of the Southern reality and its rights will only produce more tension and mistrust. But listening to reason, logic, and reality and enabling a genuine and sustainable solution based on the will of the Southern people and their legitimate right to restore its state, is the only path to real peace and lasting stability, as evidenced by three decades of instability.