South Yemen crisis
Part of theCold war, andArab Cold War
AT-62 tank in the streets of Aden during the South Yemeni crisis
Date 13 – 24 January 1986 (1 week and 4 days) Location South Yemen Result al-Toghmah faction victory Defeat ofal-Zomrah faction and their exile to theYemen Arab Republic Assassination ofAbdul Fattah Ismail,Ali Antar,Saleh Moslih Qassem, andAli Shayi' Assumption of power byAli Salem al-Beidh andHaidar Abu Bakr al-Attas
Belligerents
al-Zomrah faction of theYemeni Socialist Party	al-Toghmah faction of theYemeni Socialist Party
Commanders and leaders
Ali Nasir Muhammad President	Abdul Fattah Ismail † Former President Ali Antar X Vice President Saleh Muslih Qassem X Defense Minister Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas Prime Minister Ali Salem al-Beidh YSP Politburo member
Units involved
Shabwah andAbyan Mobilized tribal militias South Yemeni Navy South Yemeni Air Force	Dhale andLahij Mobilized tribal militias Northern NDF militants South Yemeni tank corps
Casualties and losses
4,000 – 6,000 dead[1] 60,000 refugees

TheSouth Yemeni crisis, colloquially referred to in Yemen asthe events of '86,^[a][2][3] was a failedcoup d'etat and briefcivil war which took place on January 13, 1986, inSouth Yemen. The civil war developed as a result of ideological differences, and later tribal tensions, between two factions of the rulingYemeni Socialist Party (YSP), centred onAbdul Fattah Ismail's faction, at-Toghmah, andAli Nasir Muhammad's faction, az-Zomrah, for the leadership of the YSP and South Yemen. The conflict quickly escalated into a costly civil war that lasted eleven days and resulted in thousands of casualties. Additionally, the conflict resulted in the demise of much of the Yemeni Socialist Party's most experienced socialist leadershipcadre, contributing to a much weaker government and the country's eventual unification withNorth Yemen in 1990.

This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "South Yemeni crisis" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Following the end of theAden Emergency and the achievement of South Yemeniindependence in 1967, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was handed power over the country following negotiations inGeneva with the British government. A broadly left-wing nationalist insurgent organization, the NLF had sought to unite the forces of the Adenpetroleum and port workers' trade unions,Nasserites, and Communists. The last of these factions was led byAbdul Fattah Ismail, a founding member of the NLF and its chief Marxist ideologue. During the Emergency, Ismail had led the armed cadres of the NLF in Aden, and was supported by many of the insurgents who had seen action against the British. In 1969, with support from theSoviet Union, Ismail used this popularity among the nascent South Yemeni army to seize control of the NLF, and in June he was declared its General Secretary.

Ismail pursued aggressive and revolutionary domestic and foreign policies. At home, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen adopted aMarxist-Leninistscientific socialism as the official state ideology. All major industries were nationalized and collectivized, universal suffrage was implemented, and a quasi-cult of personality was developed around Ismail and the NLF, renamed the Yemeni Socialist Party in 1978. His government helped establish Marxist paramilitary organizations around theArabian Peninsula,PFLOAG andPFLO, which used political activism and violence to campaign against the Western-aligned Arab monarchies on thePersian Gulf. Under Ismail, South Yemen gave its most direct support to the later of these two groups during theDhofar Rebellion in neighbouring Oman, providing advisors to the insurgent forces there, in addition to ensuring the transit ofWarsaw Pact andChinese weapons to the rebels. He also encouraged Communist guerrillas inNorth Yemen, seeking to destabilize the Northern regime and bring about Yemeni unification under a Communist government based in the South. This antagonism toward the North would stoke tensions between the two Yemens, eventually culminating ina brief series of border skirmishes in 1972.

Following the failure of the insurgency in Oman in 1978 and simmering hostilities with North Yemen including theYemenite War of 1979, Ismail had lost favour with conservative^{[clarification needed]} elements of the Yemeni Socialist Party and alienated his country from much of the region and the West. The Soviet Union, upon which South Yemen relied for the vast majority of its trade and financial aid, had also lost confidence in the General Secretary, policymakers within theBrezhnev administration regarding him as a loose cannon and a liability. As a result, Moscow began to encourage moderates within the YSP to remove him from power. In 1980, believing that his political rivals within the YSP were preparing toassassinate him, Ismail resigned and went intoexile. His successor,Ali Nasir Muhammad, took a less interventionist stance toward both North Yemen and neighbouringOman. The Yemeni Socialist Party was increasingly polarised between Ismail's supporters, who espoused a hard-line leftist ideology, and those of Ali Nasir Muhammad who espoused more pragmatic domestic policies and friendlier relations with other Arab states and the West.

The Soviet Union attempted to play a mediating role from its naval base in Yemen which hosted 1,000-1,800 troops in 1986.^[4][5]

In June 1985, the YSP politburo adopted a resolution stating that anyone who resorted to violence in settling internal political disputes is considered a criminal and a betrayer of the homeland.^[6]

In 13 January 1986, TheSocialist Party split into two factions:al-Toghmah, loyal to Abdel Fattah Ismail, andal-Zomrah, loyal to Ali Nasir Muhammad.^[7] On January 13, 1986, bodyguards ofAli Nasir Muhammad opened fire on members of the Yemeni Socialist Party politburo as the body was due to meet. As most politburo members were armed and had their bodyguards, a firefight broke out. Ali Nasir's supporters were not in the meeting room at the time.Vice-president Ali Ahmad Nasir Antar,Defense minister Saleh Muslih Qassem, and the YSP disciplinary chief Ali Shayi' Hadi were killed in the shootout.Abdul Fattah Ismail survived the attack and tried to escape through a tank, but was killed later on that day as naval forces loyal to Ali Nasir shelled the tank.^[6][8] Already on the first day of clashes, about 3,800 people died.^[7]

Fighting lasted for 12 days and resulted in thousands of casualties, the ouster of Ali Nasir, and the deaths of Abdul Fattah Ismail, Ali Antar, Saleh Muslih, and Ali Shayi'. Some 60,000 people, including Ali Nasir and his brigade, fled to theYemen Arab Republic. In the conflict that took the lives of anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 people,Ali Salem al-Beidh was one of the few high-ranking officials of Abdul Fattah's faction on the winning side who survived.^[1]

A former Politburo member, al-Beidh took the top position in the YSP following a 12-day 1986 civil war between forces loyal to former chairmanAbdul Fattah Ismail and then-chairmanAli Nasir Muhammad. An Ismail ally, he took control after Mohammad's defeat, defection, and Ismail's death.^[9][10]

Suffering a loss of more than half its aid from the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1989,^[11] and an interest in possible oil reserves on the border between the countries, al-Beidh's government worked toward unification with North Yemen officials.^[12][13]

Efforts toward unification proceeded from 1988. Although the PDRY and the YAR governments declared that they approved a future union in 1972, little progress was made toward unification, and relations were often strained.

In 1990,North Yemen andSouth Yemen united into one country, but in February 1994, clashes between northern and southern forces started and quickly developed into a full-scale civil war. As northern forces advanced on Aden, al-Beidh declared the establishment of theDemocratic Republic of Yemen on 21 May.^[14] The southern resistance however failed. Saleh enlistedSalafi and Jihadist forces to fight against Southern forces of theYemeni Socialist Party. Forces loyal to Ali Nasir also took part. Northern forces entered Aden on 7 July, resulting in thesacking of the city.

• South Yemen Movement
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

• فيلم "الإخوة الأعداء".. ما أسباب مذبحة 13 يناير في جنوب اليمن؟ وكيف تشكل واقع البلاد إلى اليوم؟
• أسرار تصفية القيادات ومقتل الرئيس عبد الفتاح إسماعيل بمذبحة عدن
• عدن تستعيد البحث عن القاتل المجهول بعد 35 سنة
• Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (1986-03-13)."Catastrophe in South Yemen".MERIP. Retrieved2025-05-04.

• Wars involving Yemen
• Separatism in Yemen
• Conflicts in 1986
• 1986 in South Yemen
• South Yemen
• January 1986 in Asia
• Yemeni Socialist Party
• Cold War conflicts

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from January 2018
• All articles needing additional references
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from December 2025