Click to expand Image Roadblock of the Southern Transitional Council in the south of Socotra, Yemen, October 14, 2023. © 2023 Hardscarf/Wikimedia Yemeni government-aligned forces appear to have used excessive force in February against protesters supporting the Southern Transitional Council in Aden. Government forces in three locations fired at protesters supporting the group and made arrests and held people for days without due process in Aden and Hadramout. The Yemeni government should provide accountability and justice for the Southern Transitional Council’s violations in areas previously under its control, and not repeat the same violations that it previously condemned.(Beirut) – Yemeni government-aligned forces appeared to have used excessive force against protesters, as well as arbitrarily detained some protestors in February, Human Rights Watch said today. Throughout February 2026, there were several protests in support of the Southern Transitional Council (STC). Human Rights Watch investigated protests that took place in three governorates of Yemen: Aden, Shabwa, and Hadramout. Government forces reportedly killed at least six people and injured dozens in these clashes with protesters in Aden and Shabwa, and detained dozens of people in Hadramout. Human Rights Watch found that government forces used excessive force against protestors and arbitrarily detained protestors in Aden. “The Yemeni government has long purported to stand up for free expression, and yet their actions don’t match their words,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government should be ensuring that Yemenis’ rights are respected during this period, rather than violating their right to free expression.”On December 30, 2025, Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced a 90-day nationwide state of emergency following the STC’s takeover of the governorate of Hadramout. One week later, Saudi-led coalition forces and government forces pushed the STC out of territories where it had gained control in December.Throughout February 2026, people took to streets throughout southern Yemen to show support for the STC, which had recently announced its dissolution. Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 people between February 10 and March 6, including protestors who had been arrested, witnesses to government forces’ use of force, and representatives of the STC. Researchers also verified photographs and videos posted online from the protests showing the use of force, as well as injured protesters, including two children. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Yemeni government on March 12 to request its response to Human Rights Watch’s findings but has received no response. In the capital of Hadramout governorate, Seiyun, on February 6, government forces fired on demonstrators at Seiyun airport, where they had demanded the removal of the Yemeni national flag and a picture of the Saudi king. The STC has publicly supported southern Yemen’s independence movement and used the flag of South Yemen, which was a state between 1967 and 1990 before unifying with northern Yemen. Nobody was killed or injured as far as Human Rights Watch could ascertain. Government forces detained dozens of protestors, and two STC leaders at their homes the following day. The STC leaders were charged with inciting people to protest, while the four protestors interviewed said they had not been charged and were released after several days. On February 11, protesters in Shabwa’s governate capital, Ataq, attempted to storm a government building—some of them armed—to take down the Yemeni flag and replace it with the STC flag. Both at the start of the protest, which appeared to have been peaceful based on information researchers received and a livestream video analyzed by researchers, and at the government building, government forces fired at protesters. Some protesters also fired on government forces, though Human Rights Watch was unable to determine who fired first. Five people were killed and 39 injured, according to Al Jazeera, citing a statement from the deputy head of the Shabwah General Hospital Authority, Rami Lamas. Pro-STC protesters in Aden on February 19 attempted to storm the presidential palace. Government security forces fired on them, killing one person and injuring at least 25, the STC said in a statement to Human Rights Watch. A human rights activist following the cases told Human Rights Watch that government forces also detained 28 people.According to the activist, as well as Human Rights Watch’s documentation, those detained were not provided with due process, and were held for over two weeks without being taken before a judge or charged with a criminal offense, making the detentions arbitrary.Human Rights Watch believes, based on evidence it reviewed, that government forces in Aden used excessive force against peaceful protesters.The protests were directed at least in part by the STC. The STC in Hadramout; Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the STC; and the STC in Aden made statements on February 4, 10, and 19, respectively, calling on STC supporters to protest. Several STC leaders participated in the protests, including the leader of the STC in Shabwa, Shiekh Lahmer Ali Laswad.The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Yemen is a party, protects the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Under the covenant, law enforcement personnel are obliged to respect fundamental rights. The Yemeni constitution also provides for the right to free speech and political participation under article 42.The ICCPR allows only for limited restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly that are “necessary in a democratic society” to protect a narrow range of important interests including public order, public safety, and the rights of others. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, an international expert body that monitors compliance with the ICCPR, has stated that restrictions justified on grounds of public safety require authorities to demonstrate “a real and significant risk to the safety of persons (to life and security of person) or a similar risk of serious damage to property.” The Yemeni government should ensure a speedy and effective investigation into all instances of security forces firing on protestors and hold accountable anyone responsible for any unlawful use of force.Throughout Yemen’s 11-year conflict, all warring parties, including both the Yemeni government and the STC, have suppressed free speech and violated protesters’ rights. “As power changes hands in southern Yemen, the warring parties need to end the cycle of violations,” Jafarnia said. “The Yemeni government needs to provide accountability and justice for the STC’s violations in areas previously under its control and not repeat the same violations that it previously condemned.”Aden, February 19On February 19, 2026, Southern Transitional Council (STC) supporters attempted to storm the presidential palace in Aden. In response, government security forces fired on the supporters, killing one person and injuring at least 25, according to an STC representative’s statement sent to Human Rights Watch. A video compiling several clips from unknown sources, posted by the Indian news channel Mirror Now and geolocated by Human Rights Watch, shows hundreds of people peacefully protesting outside a barrier two kilometers from the presidential palace. Another clip shows dozens of protesters breaching the barrier and throwing debris towards the nearby security forces.Two armored vehicles face the barrier as well as dozens of armed security force members. Gunshots can be heard throughout, and researchers identified at least three incidents of security forces firing upward, including shots from a machine gun mounted on an armored vehicle. In another video posted to social media, one of the armored vehicles initially backs away from the protesters, but then speeds directly toward them, stopping just before it reaches them.Al Jazeera said it had “obtained [footage] purporting to show several wounded individuals at the site.” Human Rights Watch has not reviewed this footage. Human Rights Watch reviewed a South24 video said to be taken at the Aboud hospital in Aden that showed 12 injured protesters, including two older men and a child.The government-run Saba News Agency said that a senior official in the Presidential Leadership Council described the protests as “acts of incitement” and “armed mobilization,” and said that government forces had “exercised maximum restraint” in responding. Aden’s security committee stated that the protesters’ actions “compelled security authorities to perform their duty in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, ensuring the protection of sovereign institutions and the preservation of security and stability.”Security forces also arrested many protesters. An activist based in Aden provided a list of 28 detained protesters to Human Rights Watch; 17 of them were transferred to al-Mansora Prison. The father of one of the detainees told Human Rights Watch that authorities had not allowed his 19-year-old son to call his family to tell them when he was detained: “My son didn’t get back home [the night of the protest], and we thought he went to stay over at one of his relatives’ homes. The next day when he wasn’t back and we saw the pictures of the protest and people said that there are detainees, so we started looking for him, and that was when we learned he was detained in Ma’ashiq Palace.”The father said that as of March 2, his son had yet to be released despite several promises by authorities. “The security forces in Ma’ashiq kept telling us that they would release [the detained protesters] tomorrow or the day after, but they didn’t and transferred them to the central prison in al-Mansora on February 26.” He was released on March 8.The brother of another detainee said his brother had also not been released after two weeks, that authorities had not allowed his brother to call his family, and that they were only able to visit him once, after he was transferred from Ma’ashiq to Al Mansoura Prison after being held for nine days in the palace. His brother was also released on March 8.Both were not aware that any charges had been brought against their relatives.The security forces in Aden said in a February 20 statement that “Armed elements … attempted to infiltrate to carry out acts of sabotage. Despite the security forces’ utmost restraint, these elements’ insistence on crossing red lines by targeting security forces and attempting to storm the outer gate of the Ma’ashiq Palace constituted a premeditated and organized attack.” Human Rights Watch was unable to verify the security forces’ claims that protesters were targeting security forces, though videos showed protesters trying to storm the barrier two kilometers from the palace. On March 8, Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, ordered the immediate release of the detained protesters according to al-Mashhad news website. On March 9, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the detainees had been released by a presidential directive.Hadramout, February 6On February 6, protestors supporting the STC marched in Seiyun and some later held a sit-in at the local airport. Government-aligned National Shield Forces fired on protestors at the airport and arrested an estimated 35 people either at the protest or the next day. Researchers interviewed five people, including Amgad Sabeeh, the head of the STC’s department of media and culture in Hadramout, and four people who were arrested at the protests. Sabeeh and one of those arrested said that protesters marched peacefully through the city. The protester said that some demonstrators climbed the walls of a literacy center and the government palace and tore down the Yemeni national flag and the picture of Saudi Arabia’s king at both sites. He said that after protesters read a concluding statement, some continued on to Seiyun airport, sitting in front of the gate, demanding that the Yemeni flag be removed. He said that after about 45 minutes, “an unknown force intervened and opened fire directly from the direction of the palm farms [east of the airport], toward the protesters [and the airport security forces].” In response, he said, the National Shield Forces began to “fire hysterically” at both the unknown force and the protesters, though nobody was killed. The National Shield Forces also arrested some protesters.He said that since the person in the palm farms was firing toward the protesters, he took cover behind a car. At that point, he said a soldier from the National Shield Forces, which he recognized by his uniform, found him, fired in the air “to intimidate [him],” and subsequently arrested him. He said that while he was detained, an investigator told him there was a third party who fired at the security forces, so they had to respond. Three others said government forces arrested them either during the airport protest or as they were trying to leave. Two said that they and other protesters were accused of “assaulting the airport,” though they said that the protest was peaceful and there was no intention of storming the airport.One said that when his brother came to the airport to seek his brother’s release, the brother was also arrested. He was released the next day. All four people interviewed said that during the investigation, they were accused of assaulting the airport, which they denied. Authorities held them at the airport, an unofficial detention site, for several days, without bringing charges against them. When they were released, authorities conditioned their release on signing a pledge stating that they wouldn’t participate in “unlicensed” protests anymore.Two of the detainees said about 50 protestors were held at the airport with them and one said they were forced to sleep on the floor. One said they spent a night “without water and were forbidden from using the restroom until the following morning.” Sabeeh said forces went to his house to arrest him and when they couldn’t find him, they waited outside for several hours before leaving. He told Human Rights Watch he had fled to a safe area. He said that security forces accused him and several other STC leaders with, “inciting people to protest.”He said that those who tore down the pictures and the Yemeni flags “didn’t belong to the STC,” and were “infiltrators.” Human Rights Watch was unable to verify this statement. However, the STC’s Hadramout leadership had made a statement on February 4 calling on supporters to march on February 6, in with “steadfastness and resilience.” Shabwa, February 11STC supporters led a march through Ataq the day after Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the STC, called on supporters on X “to press on with your struggles across the various arenas and fronts of the revolution.” Government forces fired on the protesters, killing at least 5 people and injuring 39, according to the statement from Rami Lamas, the deputy head of the Shabwah General Hospital Authority, to Al Jazeera.Human Rights Watch spoke to five people who attended the protest: a journalist; an STC leader; Nasser al-Khalife, the head of the Yemeni civil society organization Dameer Association for Rights and Freedoms; and two other human rights activists.The night before the protest, the protest site was destroyed along with microphones, speakers, and southern Yemini flags that had been set up there. The STC leader said that people standing near the platform said that armored military vehicles and troops belonging to the Shabwa Defense Forces and Special Forces under the authority of the governor of Shabwa—who had recently shifted his allegiance away from the STC—had approached the platform. The STC leader said that those he spoke with saw these forces destroy the platform and confiscate southern flags. The journalist corroborated this account. Both the STC leader and the journalist said that around 9:00 a.m. on February 11, protesters assembled at Mohammed Bin Zayed hospital, to march to the nearby square. They said that government-aligned special forces and security personnel tried to prevent them from reaching the square and started firing at protesters. Human Rights Watch could not verify this information.The journalist and STC leader said that at around 9:30 a.m., Laswad, the head of the STC in Shabwa, arrived and led the march to the protest square though security forces continued firing toward protesters. Eventually, the forces withdrew, and the protest continued peacefully.Afterward, some protesters marched on toward the city center, which includes Shabwa’s main government building—a typical location for protests—people interviewed said. They said that as protesters approached the government building, different government-aligned forces began firing upon protesters from multiple directions. An STC leader who was documenting the protest said: I was photographing what was happening and another person next to me was photographing as well and he was shot and [I] later learned that he was injured. When that happened, I returned to my car and continued photographing from my car. While I was doing so, an armored vehicle moved next to me and fired at me, injuring me. Al-Khalife told researchers that there were “masked gunmen carrying assault rifles in the middle of the protesters who were shooting towards the military forces.” He said that one also threw a sound bomb at the gate of the government building. Two people interviewed confirmed al-Khalife’s account and added that the armed men were soldiers with the STC-aligned Second Shabwa Defense Forces Brigade. Human Rights Watch was unable to verify these claims. Abdul Galil Shaif, a the STC’s representative in Geneva, told Human Rights Watch the armed men were not officially affiliated with the STC. Human Rights Watch reviewed footage from a recording of a Facebook livestream, which a journalist started at 9:10 a.m. on February 11. The livestream shows hundreds of peaceful protesters waving flags and chanting as they walk down Ataq’s main street. Forty-three minutes into the livestream, several unmasked people, all wearing either camouflage pants or jackets, come into view among the protestors armed with Kalashnikov-pattern assault rifles, including a group of men in a pick-up truck. Shortly afterward, gunfire is heard, and the protesters run down the street. It is unclear who is shooting. A few minutes later the protesters reach the governorate building and are met with armored vehicles, and more gunfire is heard, including from automatic rifles and heavy machine guns. In a statement published on February 11, the government-aligned Security Committee in Shabwa stated that “infiltrating elements armed with various types of weapons” had “launched a blatant assault against members of the security and military units and their vehicles, targeting them with live ammunition while attempting to storm the Shabwah Governorate building,” and that “This resulted in a number of casualties and injuries.” They did not say who caused the casualties and injuries, or whether any of their own forces had been injured or killed.On March 6, Human Rights Watch learned that the Yemeni government’s Interior Ministry had issued an arrest warrant for Laswad, accusing him of inciting people to attack civilian institutions.Human Rights Watch verified a video posted to social media showing STC supporters in front of the government building, with at least one projectile being fired from the grounds of the government building toward the protestors.Human Rights Watch also reviewed two photographs and a video of two injured protesters, reportedly injured in the clashes. Both appeared to be children. Both had images of STC leaders attached to their shirts, and one had an STC flag wrapped around his head.