Aden (South24) 

"South24 Center for News and Studies" inaugurated today its official office in the capital city Aden with the presence of local authority officials, journalists, researchers and academic figures.

The ribbon was cut by the director of Al-Malla district in Aden governorate, Abdulrahim Al-Jawi, who blessed the opening of the center's headquarters and stressed the readiness of the local authority to facilitate all its work and activities.

From the inauguration ceremony of the South24 Center for News and Studies office in Aden (Ahmed Shehab)

In a virtual attending from Switzerland, the founder and Center Chairman Ayad Qassem said that "the opening of South24 Center office in Aden is a step to achieve our ambitions to obtain leading research and media institutions."

Ayad Qassem, Founder and Chairman of South24 Center for News and Studies (Ahmed Shehab)

"We seek to activate research activity in South Yemen, activate its role in an institutional manner and transfer it from the individual stage to the institutional one," Ayad added.

In his welcoming speech to the attendees, Jacob Al-Sufyani, South24 Office Director in Aden said that the center seeks during the coming period to hold qualifying and training courses for journalists and researchers in partnership with local and international institutions.

Jacob reviewed a number of South24 Center publications in English and Arabic, which varied between studies, analytical and research papers, in addition to the Center's first annual publication, which monitors the most important events which took place in South Yemen during 2021.

Paper publications of South24 Center for News and Studies (Ahmed Shehab)

From Cairo, Egypt, the Executive Director of South24 Center, Farida Ahmed, revealed that one of the center's scope is to "create solutions to achieve and establish peace in Yemen."

The attendees at the inauguration ceremony praised South24 Center, its team, its work, and its research and analytical materials as well as for news and translations.

Local authority officials, journalists, researchers and academic figures at the inauguration ceremony of South24 Center for News and Studies office in Aden, February 2, 2022 (Ahmed Shehab)

The prominent Southern researcher and writer Ali Saleh Al-Khaliqi stated that "South24 Center is one of the windows that opened the way to communicate the Southern issue to the international community," considering that Southerners were besieged from conveying their voice to the international community.

For his part, Bashraheel Hisham Bashraheel, deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Ayyam newspaper, stressed the need to "work to raise the level of journalistic competencies so that we can convince the international recipient's mind," adding, "South24 Center will be successful if it adopts this mission."

Watch | video of the inauguration ceremony of South24 Center office in Al-Malla, Aden

Southern activist Aisha Abadel hoped that the opening of South24 headquarters would be "a step to advance Southern journalistic work at home and abroad, and a point to convey the marginalized Southern voice."

Researcher and historian Najmi Abdulmajid pointed out that the South24 Center is "moving at a steady and confident pace," and he continued, "In South, we need such centers and windows to inform the world of our national cause and what is happening in our country."

Al-Malla district director, Abdulrahim Al-Jawi, cutting opening ribbon of the South24 Center for News and Studies office in Aden on February 2, 2022 (Ali Hassan, South24)

The press secretary of the STC President, journalist Ali Al-Hadayani, indicated that South24 "was almost the single window for South Yemen abroad," praising the efforts being made at the center.

At the end of the ceremony, the Center's team distributed several paper copies of the Center's production to the attendees. 

South24 Center for News and Studies

Photo: South24 Center for News and Studies office team in Aden, along with some guests, February 2, 2022 (Ahmed Shehab)