In a statement published in Aden Post - local news outlets - the Harak - Southern Secessionist Movement - officially announced its armed struggle against Sana'a central government had begun, calling on its supporters to stand united in their efforts to liberate their lands.

Only hours after President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi landed in Aden - southern seaport and former capital of South Yemen - to address mounting tensions and violence in the city and across the southern provinces, the Harak decided to cut all bridges and declare open its secession movement.

Southern leaders, such as former President Ali Salem al-Baidh called from Beirut - Lebanon - for the armed struggle to begin stressing Sana'a was never serious in its efforts to address southerners' grievances -- stolen lands, discrimination, stolen benefits and unfair repartition of resources --

While southerners stood united with revolutionaries in 2011 in a popular struggle to depose then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, old recriminations and unresolved issues soon resurfaced as Yemen state officials and the international community scrambled to save Yemen republican institutions through a power transfer agreement.

Strong of millions of militants the Southern Movement, except for a few radical in-groups, so far advocated for a peaceful resolution, having agreed to participate to Yemen National Dialogue Conference on March 18th.

Thursday events and the killing of four militants seem to have been a game changer of all Harak leaders, with both moderate and radicals bent on riding themselves from Sana'a overbearing shadow.

The Harak said it will now set up a revolutionary committee which will be charged with overseeing the popular liberation movement.

Residents in Aden told the Yemen Post on Sunday that clashes in between militants and the authorities were still on-going with sporadic gunshots heard in Crater and Mansoura all through the day.

Eye witnesses commented northerners were being assaulting in the streets and their properties vandalizing.

Ali a Haraki militant warned things will get worse in the next coming days as the movement will organize a systematic targeting of northerners' interests in the South.

"If people feel they can target us [southerners] in Taiz by attacking our shops and businesses then we can do the same right here at home."

While no Haraki leaders confirmed the veracity of Ali' statement, several residents concurred they had heard similar rumors.