The South is (once again) back
Germany was divided into two states, West Germany and East Germany, in 1949 and reunified in 1990. Vietnam was divided into two states, South Vietnam and North Vietnam, in 1954 and reunified in 1976. Korea was divided into two states, South Korea and North Korea, in 1948 and has not yet been reunified. Yemen was reunified in 1990. But when was Yemen divided prior to that? One has to look very far back in history to find the answer. Before 1990, the territory of the modern-day Republic of Yemen was last united under a single polity during the Middle Ages - specifically under the rule of the Rasulid dynasty, which governed the present-day territory of the Republic of Yemen as well as parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia between 1229 and 1454. The Rasulid dynasty claimed descent from the originally Christian Ghassanid dynasty, which ruled a client state of the (Eastern) Roman Empire from 220 to 638 and even attained the title of Eastern Roman Emperor itself between 802 and 813. However, there is also a theory that the Rasulid dynasty might have been of Turkic origin. In any case, they did not originally hail from Yemen.
The term "South Yemen" is misleading. It implies a commonality with "North Yemen" that simply never existed in that form. The two regions are even divided along religious lines: the majority in North Yemen is Shiite, whereas the majority in South Yemen is Sunni. It is also telling that North Yemen never officially referred to itself by that name. Instead, its official state designations were the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and following the republican victory in the civil war known as the September 26 Revolution (1962-1970) the Yemen Arab Republic. South Yemen, by contrast, did actually use that name for a time. From 1967 to 1970, the state was officially known as the People's Republic of Southern Yemen, and from 1970 onwards as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. Prior to 1967, it was the Federation of South Arabia. This was a federation of various emirates, sultanates, and sheikhdoms under British protection, much like the Trucial States (1820–1971), which are now the United Arab Emirates. In 1963, an uprising inspired by socialism and Pan-Arabism broke out in South Arabia, directed against both British colonial rule and the local monarchies.
Egypt, officially known at the time as the United Arab Republic, supported the uprising known as the 14 October Revolution. The revolution succeeded, not least because the British government of the day, led by the Labour Party, lacked the motivation to maintain colonial rule in South Arabia indefinitely. Prime Minister James Harold Wilson (Baron Wilson of Rievaulx), a figure from the Labour Party's left wing, had actually intended to yield to the revolution in South Arabia as early as 1964; however, under pressure from the USA, which was determined to prevent the emergence of yet another socialist republic in the Third World, the British were persuaded to continue this futile colonial war.
But in 1967 it was enough. London decided to withraw its troops from South Arabia. The revolution was victorius, the many small monarchies were united into one unitary republic. From 1967 to 1969, South Yemen espoused a Nasserist ideology—a socialist, Pan-Arab, non-aligned, and non-Marxist ideology named after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, which was also championed by the republicans in the neighboring Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. In 1969, however, an internal power struggle broke out in South Yemen, resulting in victory for the communist, Marxist (though still Pan-Arab) faction, which had previously been in the minority. From then on, South Yemen aligned itself closely with the Soviet Union diplomatically. While socialism was long widespread across the Arab world, South Yemen was, in fact, the only communist state in the region. The designation "South Yemen" must be understood primarily against the backdrop of the Pan-Arab aspiration for unity; a merger of the two states would simply have been viewed as a first step towards greater Arab unity.
Had there not been the communist shift in the political direction in South Yemen in 1969, nothing would have stood in the way of the unification of the two states in 1970. However, worlds separated Nasserism and communism. Moreover, Nasser died in 1970. Nasser had been a Hero of the Soviet Union and a recipient of the Order of Lenin. Unlike Nasser, his successor, Anwar Sadat, harbored no sympathy for the Soviet Union. Arab unity was also not a priority for Sadat; in 1971, he renamed the United Arab Republic the Arab Republic of Egypt. Furthermore, he expelled all Soviet military advisors from the country and subsequently aligned himself more closely with the USA diplomatically. The Yemen Arab Republic followed Egypt’s change of course. Consequently, within a year, the revolutionary rulers in Sanaa and Aden had gone from being ideological allies to adversaries. Wars even broke out between North Yemen and South Yemen in 1972 and 1979. Additionally, South Yemen was the Palestine Liberation Organization's most important state backer.
The PLO could count on having a safe haven in South Yemen. However, economic problems stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union, combined with a weakening caused by internal power struggles, led to a renewed willingness in South Yemen to unite with North Yemen. Furthermore, following an internal power struggle in 1986, a portion of the South Yemeni state and party leadership had gone into exile in North Yemen. In 1989, North Yemen and South Yemen agreed to unify; this was implemented in 1990 under the name Republic of Yemen.
While Sanaa, the former capital of North Yemen, became the new capital of the unified Yemen, South Yemen’s national anthem was adopted as the anthem of the unified Yemen, and the unified country’s flag mirrored the one used by revolutionaries in British South Arabia. The General People's Congress (North Yemen's dominant party) and the Yemeni Socialist Party (South Yemen's former ruling party) officially shared power on an equal basis. However, it was a flawed arrangement.
By 1993, it had become clear that the union was not, in fact, a merger of free and equal partners; rather, North Yemen had de facto annexed South Yemen. Moreover, Islamist forces were gaining strength. The General People’s Congress did not hesitate to support these Islamist forces against the Yemeni Socialist Party. In 1994, Ali Salem al-Beidh—who simultaneously held the posts of Vice President of the Republic of Yemen and General Secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party—and Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas (also a member of the Yemeni Socialist Party and Prime Minister of the Republic of Yemen) resigned from their government positions and went to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen. In a live broadcast on Radio Aden, Ali Salem al-Beidh announced a declaration of independence: "I proclaim the creation of the Democratic Republic of Yemen as an independent state with its capital at Aden."
The remaining Yemeni government under President Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh responded with brutal force and, supported by Salafist militias, reconquered South Yemen within two months. In 2004, the Iran-backed Shia Islamist militia Ansar Allah, better known as the Houthis, launched an insurgency focused on the former North Yemen. This is hardly surprising. Until 1970, the kings of Yemen had also served as the Imams of Yemen. Thus, the model of governance practiced in the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979, in which the supreme political leader and the supreme religious leader are one and the same person, was quite familiar to the Shias of North Yemen.
In 2007, the Southern Movement formed under Ali Salem al-Beidh as a revived South Yemeni independence movement. The Southern Movement launched an uprising in 2009. In 2012, long-serving President (and former child soldier) Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978, was forced to resign reluctantly as the pro-democracy protests of the Arab Spring reached Yemen. However, this did nothing to alter the authoritarian regime of the General People’s Congress. Moreover, Ali Abdullah Saleh sought to regain power and entered into a fragile alliance of convenience with the Houthis to that end. This proved to be a fatal mistake; the Houthis assassinated him in 2017. After all, the Houthis had no intention of helping him return to power; they wanted to hold power themselves.
Since 2017, the Houthis have ruled the territory of the former Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen with an iron fist. Also in 2017, the Southern Transitional Council formed in Aden. The Southern Movement had succeeded in gaining control over the majority of the former South Yemen; South Yemen effectively existed once again. The Southern Transitional Council (STC) served as the revived government of South Yemen. However, the STC initially refrained from declaring independence. After all, what had become of the internationally recognized government of Yemen? Backed by Saudi Arabia, it had sought refuge in South Yemen. Under Saudi pressure, a fragile alliance was formed between the Yemeni government and the STC. In December 2025, this alliance collapsed. The Southern Transitional Council deemed the time ripe to finally restore the independence of South Yemen. Within a few weeks, the STC succeeded in capturing almost the entire former territory of South Yemen. Independence was announced for a state named the State of South Arabia. The United Arab Emirates supported the Southern Transitional Council.
Yet the dream of independence was abruptly shattered once more. Saudi Arabia was determined to prevent the rise of the State of South Arabia at all costs. A massive Saudi military operation destroyed the nascent State of South Arabia in less than two weeks. This was also a humiliation for the United Arab Emirates, which proved unable to protect its South Yemeni allies from Saudi Arabia’s overwhelming military might. Ali Salem al-Beidh died in exile in Abu Dhabi at the age of 86; the grief of seeing his homeland lose its independence for a third time was likely simply too much for him to bear. Although there were mass demonstrations by proponents of independence, the protests were suppressed by the Saudi occupiers and the Yemeni government. The dream of independence seemed lost for good. Really?
While the Southern Transitional Council did disband itself under Saudi pressure on January 9, 2026, that dissolution was, of course, highly controversial. The Transitional Council of South Arabia emerged from the remnants of the STC. And since September 2026, the fight for South Yemen has been back underway. It remains to be seen whether South Yemen, or rather, South Arabia, will once again become an independent state.
In any case, South Yemen has set a record: No other state has been destroyed and subsequently re-established as often as South Yemen. South Yemen sends the world an encouraging message: even a crushing, total defeat need not spell the end.
A country lives on as long as there are people who believe in it!
