Yemeni PM appeals to Arabs to save Aden after separatists' advances

World Sunday 28/January/2018 20:03 PM
By: Times News Service
Yemeni PM appeals to Arabs to save Aden after separatists' advances

Aden: The Yemeni prime minister on Sunday appealed to Arab countries to save President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's interim capital Aden from falling to southern separatists who have seized large parts of the city in heavy clashes against government forces.
"They are moving militarily, setting up new military checkpoints and attacking camps of the legitimacy (government) ....," Ahmed bin Dahr wrote in a message on his Facebook page, referring to southern fighters under the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).
"This is a serious matter and the coalition and Arabs as a whole must move to save the situation. The matter is in their hands and the hope, as we see it in the government, is on the (United Arab) Emirates," he said.
Meanwhile, several people were killed and injured as armed groups fought each other in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Sunday, medical staff at hospitals in the city said. Gunmen were deployed throughout most districts of the city and there was heavy gunfire, according to reports from residents. There have been rising tensions between southern separatists and the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi over control of the southern half of the country.
The clashes in Aden come as a deadline imposed by the separatists for the government to resign expired on Sunday. Hadi's administration nominally controls about four-fifths of Yemen's territory, but political and military leaders in Aden now want to revive the former independent state of South Yemen. The southern separatists - the Southern Resistance Forces - last week accused Hadi's cabinet of corruption and inefficiency and demanded they quit.