Jan 8 (Reuters) – The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of a group of southern separatists, arrived in the United Arab Emirates on an aircraft from the Somali capital of Mogadishu, after he journeyed to Somaliland by boat.
The fast-moving crisis in Yemen’s south has caused a rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two most powerful countries in the oil-rich Gulf, fracturing a coalition headed by Yemen’s internationally recognised government which is battling the Iran-backed Houthis.
In a statement on Thursday, the coalition said the plane to Mogadishu from Somaliland was “under the supervision of UAE officers” and waited an hour before flying to a military airport in Abu Dhabi, but did not say if Zubaidi was still aboard.
A day earlier, the coalition said Zubaidi, leader of the Southern Transitional Council, had failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks and his fate was unclear, clouding efforts to contain a military escalation that erupted last month.
There was no immediate comment from the UAE or the STC.
After al-Zubaidi’s unexplained absence from the Riyadh talks, his group said he was overseeing military and security operations in the southern port city of Aden.
The plane from Mogadishu “turned off its identification system over the Gulf of Oman, then turned it back on 10 minutes prior to arrival at (Al Reef) military airport in Abu Dhabi,” the coalition said.
The aircraft was of a type similar to those frequently used in conflict zones on the routes of countries such as Ethiopia, Libya and Somalia, it added.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE first intervened in Yemen after the Houthis seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014.
The UAE joined the Saudi-backed coalition the following year in support of the internationally recognised government.
The STC was set up in 2017 with UAE backing and eventually joined the government coalition, which controls southern and eastern Yemen.
Last month STC forces suddenly seized swathes of territory, shifting the balance of power and pitting Saudi Arabia against the UAE.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Clarence Fernandez)
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