SANAA, Yemen – Yemen’s prime minister was preparing to flee the country onTuesday for Saudi Arabia after separatists seized the area around thepresidential palace in the southern port city of Aden in fierce battlesovernight, security officials said.
According to the officials, fighters loyal to the so-called SouthernTransitional Council fought all way to the gates of the Palace of Maashiqin the district of Crater in Aden, forcing President Abed Rabbo MansourHadi’s troops to abandon their positions. The officials said Hadi’s primeminister and several Cabinet members would leave imminently to Riyadh.
The palace is the seat of Yemen’s internationally backed government. Theseparatist forces did not enter the palace itself and were stopped by SaudiArabian troops who have been guarding the palace for the past months.
However, a senior government official told The Associated Press that PrimeMinister Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghar and several ministers remain inside andthat the separatists have not seized the palace itself.
The official declined to say whether the prime minister was to leave Aden.The security officials and the government official spoke on condition ofanonymity under regulations.
The fighting in Aden first erupted on Sunday, when a deadline issued by theseparatists for the government to resign expired. Hadi, who himself is inself-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia has described the separatists’ action asa “coup.”
The violence in Aden has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185 sinceSunday, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It has also exposed deep divisions within the alliance between Hadi’sgovernment and the Saudi-led coalition. The two are fighting againstYemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who are in control of thecountry’s north. The war started in 2015 when the Houthis captured much ofthe northern region after overrunning the capital, Sanaa.
The warring parties have been locked in a bloody stalemate for most of thelast three years. Yemen’s war has left over 10,000 civilians dead and 2million displaced, with the United Nations saying Yemen is facing theworld’s worst humanitarian crisis.
But within the Saudi-led coalition, allies from the United Arab Emirateshave trained the separatist forces and empowered them over the past year,in a direct challenge to Hadi, who is in Riyadh.
The unfolding events in Aden have thrown Yemen into deeper uncertainty.
The U.S. State Department has expressed concern and called upon all partiesto “refrain from escalation and further bloodshed.” Washington backs theSaudi-led coalition.
“We also call for dialogue among all parties in Aden to reach a politicalsolution,” the statement said. “The Yemeni people are already facing a direhumanitarian crisis. Additional divisions and violence within Yemen willonly increase their suffering.” – Agencies