Southern Giants Brigades

The Southern Giants Brigades are a pro-government militia in Yemen whose fighters are mostly tribesmen from southern Yemen, especially the Lahej, Abyan and Dhale governorates, together with Salafi students expelled from a religious institute in Saada by the Houthis in 2014. The present force emerged from the Southern Resistance that fought the Houthis in the south at the start of the conflict in 2015, and it is the largest faction in the Yemeni Joint Forces. It has been heavily supplied and supported by the United Arab Emirates and gained a reputation as one of the best equipped ground forces in Yemen. It took part in offensives in Al Hudaydah, Taiz and Shabwah, and its leader Abu Zara'a sits on the presidential leadership council formed in 2022. An earlier unit with the same name served in the North Yemeni military from the early 1970s.