ORDER OF BATTLE // January 31, 2018
Battle of Aden (2018)
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 60,000 estimated
République du Yémen
30,000
Medium-confidence figure
Conseil de transition du Sud
30,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Aden in January 2018 marked a significant fracture within the anti-Houthi coalition, pitting the Southern Transitional Council (STC) against the internationally recognized Yemeni government forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. With both sides fielding forces of comparable size around the headquarters in Aden, the confrontation revealed that the coalition opposing the Houthi movement was not a unified front but a grouping of factions with competing political objectives. The STC sought greater autonomy or independence for southern Yemen, placing it at direct odds with the central government it nominally shared a coalition with. This intra-coalition conflict complicated the broader Yemeni Civil War by opening a second axis of armed contestation in the south, diverting resources and attention from the Houthi front and undermining the political coherence of the internationally backed government.
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