Southerners recall the anniversary of the Yemeni regime's occupation of their country 29 years ago

Southern military general Ahmed Saeed bin Brik called for participating in a southern celebration in Hadramawt governorate (east of Aden, the capital), next Friday on the occasion of Southern Land Day, the seventh of July, which coincides with the day the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh and its allies (the Muslim Brotherhood) announced full military control over the governorates of what was known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, as an inevitable result of the failure of the fragile union between Sana'a and Aden, announced in Aden on May 22, 1990.

Bin Brik called on "the people of Hadramawt in general and the valley in particular to interact and participate positively, by standing and gathering next Friday, July 7, 2023 AD in the activities of the Southern Land Day."

On April 27, 1994, Ali Abdullah Saleh declared war on the south under the pretext of fighting what the regime's religious figures described as "socialists and communists", in a prelude to devouring the wealthy-rich country and its strategic location in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab.

The terrorist organization al-Qaeda and the Brotherhood participated alongside Saleh's forces in that war, which was considered by the regime through Justice Minister Abdul Wahab Al-Dailami, a fatwa that claimed that the southerners are outside the Islamic religion, before the regime retracted and denied that it issued those fatwas that were broadcast by the Yemeni media throughout the days of the war and were a great incentive for terrorists to participate in the fight against the southern army.

Only a few years later, the south regrouped again and demanded the realization of Mukalla's declaration of "disengagement" on May 21, 1994, when President Ali Salem al-Beidh announced the disengagement as a reaction to the crimes of the Yemeni regime against civilians in the capital, Aden, where the Yemeni regime committed war crimes against unarmed civilians.

Southerners formed a peaceful protest movement to demand independence, but the Yemeni regime practiced brutal repression against it, leading to the explosion of armed resistance following the alliance of the same regime with the Iranian arm in Yemen, the Houthi group.

Although southerners have forged an alliance with the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to combat Iranian interference, southerners have remained committed to the cause of restoring their former state.

The southern resistance has achieved unilateral success in confronting the Houthis, unlike Riyadh's allies in North Yemen, whose interests intersected with the Houthis as "a Yemeni political party in favor of the survival of a unified Yemen, which the southerners categorically reject, rejecting "unity with the Iranian proxies in Yemen.

Southerners chose Hadramawt province, part of which is still under the control of northern Yemeni forces, to hold a mass demonstration to mark Southern Land Day.

Ahmed Saeed bin Brik said that the celebration of Southern Land Day comes "in order to extract the legitimate rights of the people of Hadramawt.

He stressed the cutting off of the hands of all tamperers and corrupt by the forces benefiting from the looting of wealth, while the people of Hadramawt and the south suffer from economic, living and service deterioration, which has reached a level that cannot be tolerated or accepted.

The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Local Leadership of the Southern Transitional Council in Hadramawt Governorate, Brigadier General Saeed Ahmed Al-Mohammadi, held multiple meetings to discuss the progress of preparations for the mass events that will take place in a number of cities on the coast and valley of Hadramawt, tomorrow, Friday, in commemoration of Land Day.

The meeting called on the masses of Hadramawt to be vigilant and wary of the conspiracies that are being hatched against Hadramawt, and trying to return it to the fold of dependence and domination.

The members of the Assembly expressed their satisfaction with the level of awareness shown by the people of the province towards these conspiracies, which sends promising messages to all those who are loyal to Hadramawt, its security, stability and the victory of its national cause, the cause of restoring the southern state.

They stressed that the revolutionary spirit and revolutionary momentum that Hadramawt is witnessing these days is capable of nipping conspiracies in the bud.

The meeting called on the people of the province to further align, overcome differences in views, focus on the threats to the security of Hadramawt and its gains, and work hard and sincerely to liberate its valley.

Sheikh Hani bin Brik praised the awareness of the southern people and their transformation of every painful history into a great event.

Ben Brik said in a tweet: "The great southern people, by steadfastly adhering to the principle of restoring the south as an independent and sovereign state, have been able to turn every painful history into a great event."

He added: "Here is one of the manifestations of the greatness of this unbreakable people, as it turned January 13 into the Day of Reconciliation, and turned 7/7 the day of the terrorist invasion of the south into the southern Land Day.