Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi Sanaa – Ali Rabea Thousands of supporters of the Southern Movement - a group demanding South Yemen\'s independence - took the streets of Aden, South Yemen on Friday. The demonstration included the funeral of two Southern movement supporters, who were killed not long ago.
The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for secession and the restoration of the state in the south of Yemen. They raised the flags of what was known as the \"People\'s Democratic Republic of Yemen\", led by two leading figures in the separatist movement, Hassan Baoum and Ahmed al-Hassani.
Opinions are split: some separatists want to be independent from the rest of the country, other want a federal system in Yemen.
Ahmed al-Hassani, a Navy Commander and a former ambassador who defected from Ali Abdullah Saleh system in 2005, has recently returned to the city of Aden. He began to gather supporters for the secession from the North and the restoration of the South state, led by former President of the South Ali Salem al-Baid.
Al-Baid is leading the separatist movement from abroad and he refuses to participate in the national dialogue conference in Yemen. The conference will start in November under regional and international auspices.
The Yemeni government accuses al-Baid of being supported by Iran in order to overthrow the political settlement in Yemen sponsored by the Gulf States and blessed by the international community. Al – Baid, who was vice president for Saleh (1990-1994), moved from Europe to Beirut. He manages from there a separatist movement which does not recognise the political legitimacy in Yemen, and is ready for an \"armed struggle\" for the restoration of its own state in the south.
Yemeni political sources reported that the return of al-Hassani to Aden would be an introduction to return of the rest of the leaders who are pro-secession of South. The source expects him to declare unilateral secession once he returns to Aden, which will possibly lead to a campfire in the south of Yemen as political opinion is divided.
Sources close to the Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi revealed that he warned al-Baid about his return to Yemen.
Yemeni authorities arrested leader of the Southern Movement Ahmed al-Hassani at the airport of Aden in August. He was released on president\'s order after pressure groups demanded his release.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Sanaa on Friday to denounce the attacks against Yemeni President\'s adviser and Yemeni Socialist Party\'s Secretary General Yaasin Saaid Numan. They demanded Hadi to put an end to the series of assassinations targeting Yemen’s political leaders and to re-structure the military, which is currently led by relatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.