STC Faces Embarrassing Failure as Calls for Secession Fall Flat Across Occupied Southern Provinces

The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) faced sweeping criticism and widespread mockery after failing to mobilize supporters for sit-ins it had called for in southern and eastern provinces to demand secession and the partition of Yemen.

Despite extensive and politically motivated calls for mass mobilization, social media platforms reflected a strong public rejection of the campaign, with users lampooning the weak turnout. Political observers noted the irony of the STC urging its followers to stage sit-ins while simultaneously holding full military control over the southern and eastern regions under Saudi-UAE occupation.

Field observations confirmed that the STC’s campaign, which included erecting sit-in tents across the occupied provinces, garnered no real participation except in Aden—where only a small handful of individuals appeared in a single tent set up in the Khormaksar district.

This scene underscored the shallow public support behind the STC’s separatist agenda and highlighted the council’s failure to cultivate a genuine grassroots base despite its sizeable military apparatus and its control over the occupied territories.

Analysts described the public boycott as a significant setback for the STC, which had been counting on recent military escalations in eastern Yemen to revive momentum among its southern supporters. The failure, they said, exposes a widening gap between the council’s imposed military dominance and its fragile popular legitimacy—an imbalance that could undermine Abu Dhabi’s broader plans to enforce secession and consolidate gains on the ground.

Reactions across social media ranged from ridicule to sharp political critique. Many activists argued that the lone tent in Khormaksar symbolized the broader collapse of the STC’s attempts to portray secession as a mass movement. They emphasized that military control does not equate to public endorsement, nor does it validate the council’s political agenda.

The STC’s inability to rally even its own base in occupied Aden illustrates the profound disparity between its coercive power and its limited popular appeal. As a result, calls for secession remain hollow slogans—signified by empty tents and a notable absence of genuine public support.