# Saudi-Led Coalition Says STC Leader Fled Yemen, Deepening Rift With UAE
*Event date: 2026-01-08*
By IO Digest Desk
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition said on January 8, 2026 that Southern Transitional Council leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi had fled Yemen for the United Arab Emirates through Somaliland, an accusation that immediately sharpened an already public rupture between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the future of southern Yemen. The account, reported by Al Jazeera, was presented by coalition officials as both a security breach and a political challenge after al-Zubaidi failed to appear for planned peace talks in Riyadh.
According to the coalition’s statement, al-Zubaidi left Aden overnight by boat for Berbera in Somaliland, then boarded a plane with UAE officers to Mogadishu before the aircraft continued to Abu Dhabi. The coalition further alleged that the plane switched off its identification systems over the Gulf of Oman before turning them back on shortly before landing at Al Reef military airport. Al Jazeera reported that neither the STC nor the UAE had issued an immediate response.
Somalia’s immigration authority said it was investigating reports of unauthorized use of Somali airspace and airports to move what it described as a fugitive political figure. If confirmed, Mogadishu said, such activity would amount to a serious violation of Somali sovereignty. That response added a third government to the dispute and widened what might otherwise have remained a factional Yemeni crisis.
The episode unfolded against intensifying conflict between the STC and the internationally recognized Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has accused the UAE-backed secessionist movement of crossing a red line by seizing the provinces of Hadramout and al-Mahra near the Saudi border. The coalition responded late in December with air strikes on Mukalla targeting what it called a UAE-linked weapons shipment, while Abu Dhabi denied the shipment contained arms and announced the end of its counterterrorism mission in Yemen.
Yemeni government forces, supported by Saudi air power, later reclaimed Hadramout and al-Mahra, and the STC publicly said it would attend Riyadh-hosted talks. But the coalition said al-Zubaidi was absent from the delegation flight. It then launched strikes on his forces in Al-Dale governorate while pro-government troops moved into Aden and seized the presidential palace. Saudi-backed Homeland Shield Forces said they had entered the city and begun security operations.
The political consequences for al-Zubaidi were immediate. Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced that al-Zubaidi had been removed from the council for what he called high treason and said the attorney general had been asked to investigate. At the same time, Saudi ambassador Mohammed Al-Jaber met STC delegates in Riyadh, signaling that Riyadh intended to keep dealing with the movement while isolating its most prominent leader.
Al Jazeera’s reporting suggested the fallout could reorder leadership inside the STC itself, with figures already in Riyadh positioned to take over negotiations. More broadly, the affair exposed a deeper contest over who will shape any Yemeni settlement: Saudi Arabia, which insists the roadmap must be decided in Riyadh, or the UAE, whose ties to southern separatists remain central to the conflict. With the central allegation still unanswered by al-Zubaidi and Abu Dhabi, the immediate facts remained contested. But the political message from Riyadh was clear: it intended to treat the secessionist leader not as a negotiating partner, but as a fugitive who had broken ranks at a decisive moment.
