ABSTRACT
The Federal Government continued trying to demonstrate that it had the situation under control and on 12 August it organised a helicopter tour for journlaists, but the helicopter did not land anywhere. 1 However on 29 August the Federal Chief Minister, CAlī MusāCid al-Bābakrī, announced that “this is a peoples’ revolution, we cannot resist it”. 2 On this day he requested the SAA to take over_the Government, which it refused to do (See below;). Α–Bābakrī then resigned 3 and Sāliḥ al-CAwdhalī became formally the new Chief Minister. In fact by then several of the Federal Ministers had been captured by the NLF or had fled abroad. Ironically, Husayn Alī Bayūmī was the only Minister who remained in office in Aden. 4 Before his resignation al-Bābakrī himself hinted about who would form the future government in South Yemen: “Our nationalist brethren, acting as a widespread popular force would negotiate with the British and achieve independence.” 5
