A reshuffle in Yemen's separatist Southern Transitional Council to include two additional members of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council has made it the strongest body in the country's south, analysts say.
STC head Aidaroos Al Zubeidi — who is also vice president of the PLC — appointed Giants Brigades chief Abdul Rahman Saleh Zain Al Mahrami to the body and made former governor of Hadramawt Faraj Salmeen Muhammad Al Bahsani the council's vice chairman.
As Mr Al Mahrami and Mr Al Bahsani are both members of the PLC, the STC now includes three of the PLC's eight members.
“The reshuffle itself has been expected as the STC is now in its sixth year since launch, but some of the names included were not,” Jacob Sufyani of the South24 think tank told The National.
“This reshuffle strengthens the STC politically, militarily and security-wise as the Giants Brigades and STC — the two strongest bodies in Yemen's south — are united.”
Created in April 2017, the STC supports independence from Yemen's north, to bring the situation back to what it was in 1990 before the south, then-known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, was united with the Yemen Arab Republic.
A source at the STC told The National the reshuffle would improve performance as previous leaders of the council were “not up to par”.
“The council was set up in 2017 during a difficult and sensitive time and there was not enough time to accurately assess and select the most efficient leadership,” the source said.
“The reshuffle also came to allow other southern components, which have recently joined the council, to become active members of it.”
It also came on the heels of the Southern National Consultative Meeting, which concluded in Aden on Sunday. During the meeting, several southern bodies also officially joined the STC.
One of the meeting's most significant outcomes was the signing of the Southern National Pact, which says the “south state is built on the basis of a federal, democratic, civil, Arab and Islamic state”, with the political system based on the separation of powers and “political pluralism”, South24 reported.
The SNP criminalises “the establishment of political parties on religious, sectarian, ethnic or regional basis” and upholds “values of tolerance, moderation, coexistence and acceptance of others”.
It also calls for equal rights between men and women and the reformation of state institutions to be more inclusive towards women and youths.
More announcements are expected within the STC's General Secretariat and the National Assembly, the source said.
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The flights
The closest international airport to the TMB trail is Geneva (just over an hour’s drive from the French ski town of Chamonix where most people start and end the walk). Direct flights from the UAE to Geneva are available with Etihad and Emirates from about Dh2,790 including taxes.
The trek
The Tour du Mont Blanc takes about 10 to 14 days to complete if walked in its entirety, but by using the services of a tour operator such as Raw Travel, a shorter “highlights” version allows you to complete the best of the route in a week, from Dh6,750 per person. The trails are blocked by snow from about late October to early May. Most people walk in July and August, but be warned that trails are often uncomfortably busy at this time and it can be very hot. The prime months are June and September.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Brief scores
Barcelona 2
Pique 36', Alena 87'
Villarreal 0
