Aidaros al-Zubaidi, leader of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC), has fled the country for the United Arab Emirates after being accused of treason and removed from Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Saudi Arabia said on Thursday, as tensions escalate between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over competing interests in Yemen.

The Saudi-led military coalition said al-Zubaidi left Yemen following a dramatic overnight escape involving both sea and air travel. According to the coalition, “reliable intelligence” indicates that al-Zubaidi departed the southern port city of Aden by boat, sailing to Berbera in Somaliland, a self-declared breakaway region in the Horn of Africa.

From Berbera, al-Zubaidi allegedly boarded a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, under what Saudi officials described as the supervision of Emirati officers. He is then believed to have flown onward to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.

Al-Zubaidi’s departure came a day after Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council accused him of high treason, inciting armed rebellion, attacking constitutional authorities and committing abuses against civilians in southern Yemen. He was formally removed from the council on Wednesday.

Earlier that day, al-Zubaidi had been scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia alongside other council members for emergency talks aimed at easing the growing crisis. However, he failed to appear. The STC later claimed he was overseeing military and security operations in Aden, though his whereabouts were not publicly explained at the time.

The developments come amid renewed instability in Yemen’s south, where the STC — backed by the UAE — began seizing large areas of government-controlled territory in December, including resource-rich regions. The advances have shaken a fragile truce among anti-Houthi factions that has largely held since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022.

For years, Saudi Arabia and the UAE fought together against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which controls much of northern Yemen. Under the current power arrangement, the Houthis dominate the north, while the internationally recognized government and the STC share control of the south.

Saudi Arabia has voiced growing concern that STC gains near its border pose a direct security threat. In recent days, Riyadh has backed government-aligned forces seeking to regain territory and collect military equipment from civilians and rival groups in southern provinces.

The crisis has highlighted an increasingly open rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, once close allies in the Yemen war. Abu Dhabi has long supported the STC’s push for southern secession, while Riyadh officially backs Yemen’s unity under the Presidential Leadership Council.

Analysts warn that the infighting among anti-Houthi factions risks undermining efforts to stabilize Yemen and could ultimately strengthen the Houthis’ position. The latest confrontation also threatens to deepen broader Saudi-UAE rivalries, not only in Yemen but across economic and regional political arenas.