Yemeni security forces arrested six members of the pro-secession Southern Movement in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, a security official told Xinhua.

"Some of those arrested in the Mansoura neighborhood in Aden were in possession of funds for distribution to saboteurs to create acts of violence in the city," the local security official said, requesting anonymity.

A local government official confirmed the arrest and said that "the separatists arrested are accused of deceiving young men and disseminating false information against the country's national unity."

A source of the pro-secession Southern Movement told Xinhua that "We strongly criticize the arrest of our activists ... And this is part of the growing crackdown by government authorities against southerners." North and South Yemen unified peacefully in 1990, but the relationship deteriorated in 1994. Calls for separation in the country's southern regions were renewed in 2007.

Southerners have been complaining of being marginalized, particularly since they lost the four-month civil war in 1994. Pro- secession protests are on the rise in the south amid a worsening economic situation and allegations of discrimination in favor of northerners.

Concerns have increased since the conflicts in southern Yemen are creating instability where al-Qaida could gain foothold. Endi

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