About 3000 people in Yemen have taken to the streets demanding secession from the north.
Security forces in the cities of Aden, Dalea and Zinjibar quickly crushed the protest actions.
They came during a lull in the wave of anti-government rallies across Yemen over the past two weeks. Yemen is the Arab world's poorest state.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh indicated last week he would leave office when his term ends in 2013. He has ruled for three-decades.
The president had previously cut taxes and promised salary raises to civil servants and the military.
North and South Yemen were united in 1990, but civil war broke out four years later. The south was defeated and the country was officially reunited.
