UAE-backed STC sparks outrage in Aden by abducting prominent southern movement leader

ADEN, Aug. 23 (YPA) – UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s factions in Aden, southern Yemen, have escalated their abduction of political activists.

Human rights sources in Aden, which is under the control of the STC, reported that armed men affiliated with security forces abducted, Sami Bawazir, a leader in the southern movement (Al-Hirak Al-Janoubi), from Aden on Thursday.

The sources indicated that Bawazir’s fate remains unknown, as security agencies, including the “Counterterrorism Unit” which is primarily accused of abductions, have refused to disclose his whereabouts or the charges for which he was abducted.

Activists have held the security authorities affiliated with the STCin Aden, and the “government” loyal to the Saudi-led coalition, responsible for Bawazir’s safety and have called for his immediate release.

The abduction of Bawazir comes amid a surge in popular movement demanding the end of secret prisons run by the coalition in southern and eastern Yemen and calls for the disclosure of the fate of those who have been disappeared into these secret prisons.

Last Monday, the Laqmoush tribes in Shabwa province, eastern Yemen, had set an eight-day deadline for the factions loyal to the UAE to reveal the fate of tribe members who have been hidden in Aden’s secret prisons for eight years.

The tribe also expressed solidarity with the tribes of Abyan governorate in demanding the disclosure of the fate of Ali Ashal and other forcibly disappeared individuals in the coalition’s prisons.

@E.Y.M