CAIRO (AP) — Yemen's Southern Transitional Council and its institutions will be dismantled effective today, the group's secretary general said Friday, after weeks of unrest in southern areas and only a day after its leader fled to the United Arab Emirates.

Abdulrahman Jalal al-Sebaihi made the announcement Friday in a televised address broadcast on Yemen TV.

The decision comes a day after the Council’s leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi fled Yemen by boat to Somalia and was later flown to Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital. Al-Zubaidi has been accused of treason.

The UAE has been a major backer of the council, which sparked a confrontation with Saudi Arabia in recent days, after STC fighters advanced in Hadramout and al-Mahra governorates and appeared to be preparing to secede from Yemen.

The STC was established in April 2017 as an umbrella organization for groups that seek to restore South Yemen as an independent state, as it was between 1967 and 1990.