In meetings in London with British officials, vice president of Yemen, President of STC told journalists: “We think that independence of the south is the solution.”

Peace in Yemen can only be achieved when southerners’ calls for independence are addressed, said the country’s vice-president, Aidroos al-Zubaidi.

Zubaidi has a prominent role as an influential member of the internationally recognised Yemeni government’s ruling Presidential Leadership Council. Also he is the president  the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist organisation set up in 2017 that seeks an independent south Yemen, and which oversees the administration of several provinces, including the strategic port city of Aden.

Nine years into a war that pits the Houthi movement in the north against forces aligned with the Yemeni government in the south, Yemen’s economy is shattered, with currency devaluation doubly as bad in government-administered areas than in Houthi ones.