AFP :
Saudi and Emirati envoys shuttled between Yemeni government forces and besieging southern separatists in second city Aden on Thursday in a bid to end a tense standoff after days of deadly infighting. The Sunday assault on the embattled government’s headquarters by its former allies has opened up a new front in the devastating civil war that has created what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two major contributors to a military coalition that has backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since he fled into exile in 2015.
But they have struggled to keep together the disparate alliance supporting him against Huthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north.
South Yemen was an independent country until union with the north in 1990 and Hadi has relied heavily on militia that support its restoration.
Many of them have been recruited into special forces units trained by the
UAE to fight Al-Qaeda, which has a large presence in parts of the south.
On Wednesday, those forces deployed across Aden bringing a lull in the deadly clashes that had forced a halt to the distribution of desperately needed relief supplies for days.
The separatists said they were in full control of Aden on Thursday.
“The security situation is stable and we are working with the coalition to consolidate it,” a separatist official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Yemen Airways said it had resumed flights from Aden airport with a service to Cairo on Thursday.
Only the presidential palace in the north of the city remains under the control of government forces, military sources said.
Saudi and Emirati envoys shuttled between Yemeni government forces and besieging southern separatists in second city Aden on Thursday in a bid to end a tense standoff after days of deadly infighting. The Sunday assault on the embattled government’s headquarters by its former allies has opened up a new front in the devastating civil war that has created what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two major contributors to a military coalition that has backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since he fled into exile in 2015.
But they have struggled to keep together the disparate alliance supporting him against Huthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north.
South Yemen was an independent country until union with the north in 1990 and Hadi has relied heavily on militia that support its restoration.
Many of them have been recruited into special forces units trained by the
UAE to fight Al-Qaeda, which has a large presence in parts of the south.
On Wednesday, those forces deployed across Aden bringing a lull in the deadly clashes that had forced a halt to the distribution of desperately needed relief supplies for days.
The separatists said they were in full control of Aden on Thursday.
“The security situation is stable and we are working with the coalition to consolidate it,” a separatist official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Yemen Airways said it had resumed flights from Aden airport with a service to Cairo on Thursday.
Only the presidential palace in the north of the city remains under the control of government forces, military sources said.
