Ousted Yemen separatist leader fled to UAE, claims Saudi-led coalition

Alzubidi was accused of high treason and removed from Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council

Yemen's separatist leader Aidaros al-Zubidi has fled to the United Arab Emirates, the Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday, after an attempt to seize swathes of territory and move towards independence.

A Saudi-backed coalition claimed that Zubaidi has fled to an unknown destination, most likely in the UAE(via REUTERS)

al-Zubidi was accused of high treason and removed from Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council on Wednesday, while the coalition bombed his home province after he failed to attend talks in Riyadh.

"Reliable intelligence indicates that Aidaros al-Zubidi and others have escaped in the dead of night," a statement from the coalition said, detailing a boat-and-plane journey from Aden to Abu Dhabi via Somaliland and Somalia.

The leader of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) sailed from Aden to Berbera in Somaliland, a breakaway region in the Horn of Africa, after midnight on Wednesday, the coalition said.

He then flew in a Russian-made Ilyushin plane to Mogadishu "under the supervision of UAE officers", before continuing to a military airport in Abu Dhabi, arriving on Wednesday evening, it added.