Following a much publicized and controversial breakdown in dialogue at the NDC (National Dialogue Conference) earlier last week, southern leaders have called this Saturday on their supporters to stage yet another massive demonstration to demand an irrevocable break from Sana’a and its central government.

After six months spent negotiating Yemen’s unity and move to a federal system, al-Harak (Southern Movement) seems more intent than ever to claim its right to self-determination and ultimately its right to secession.

Marking the anniversary of South Yemen 1967 independence tens of thousands of die-hard separatists took the streets of Aden, the former capital of South Yemen, determined to make their voices heard.
Emboldened by their leaders’ defiant stance before the international community and Yemen coalition government, militants raised the old southern flag, cheered by an ecstatic crowd.

At the rally protesters chanted, “No to dialogue, yes to independence and liberation,” and “Our demand is independence.”
From Lebanon, former South Yemen President Ali Salem al-Baidh has called for an end to the NDC, urging his supporters to make history by returning South Yemen to its rightful sons and daughters.

Watching from a distance, the state security forces were careful not to engage the crowd, determined not to provoke any confrontation.

Majed al-Shuwaibi, an organizer of the rally told reporters, ”Southerners are celebrating the anniversary of the October revolution... which will continue for the re-establishment of the state.”

Hassan Baoun a prominent Haraki leader travelled from south-eastern Hadhramawt to attend the rally, a move which many southerners translated as further proof that there was no coming back from the NDC.

While al-Harak has agreed on principle to the formation of a federation, it wants to see a binary partition in line with 1990 demarcation line: North Yemen/South Yemen, something President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi has so refused arguing that it would work against unity.