A source said that the STC had attacked the government troops and seized their positions east of the town of Zinjibar. The clash has left six people dead and 15 more injured.
On Wednesday, the Yemeni government called on the STC to stick to the Riyadh deal.
In late April, the STC introduced self-governance in the country’s southern provinces and declared a state of emergency in those areas. The secessionists accused the internationally recognized government of failing to implement the 2019 peace agreement in the Saudi capital of Riaydh, while the government said that the council was destabilizing the situation in southern Yemen. There were also reports about clashes between the government troops and the STC forces in Abyan.
The STC was created in 2017. The secessionist movement is backed by the United Arab Emirates, which is part of a Saudi-led coalition that has launched an air campaign against the Shia Houthi rebels in northern Yemen.
In November 2019, Yemen’s internationally recognized government, headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, signed a peace deal with STC aimed at putting an end to military confrontation. Apart from other things, the Riyadh agreement envisioned that the secessionists should return military facilities and state institutions, which they had previously seized in Yemen’s south, to the government.