Thousands of Yemenis rallied Thursday in the port city of Aden in support of southern separatists who seized the city from the country's internationally recognized government amid diplomatic efforts aimed at reinstating forces loyal to the Saudi-backed president.
Yemeni military officials said a Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates commission arrived Thursday in Aden to monitor the withdrawal of separatist forces from government headquarters and military camps seized last week from President Abel Rabbo Mansour Hadi's presidential guards after four days of fighting that left more than 70 people dead, including civilians.
Officials in Hadi's camp said that forces loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council, which represents the separatists, had withdrawn from the presidential palace. Yet, they still remain in key positions in Aden, which has served as the seat of Hadi's interim government since 2014.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.
Both the separatists and Hadi's government are allies within a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting northern Yemen-based rebels, known as Houthis, since 2015.
The UAE is a key member of the coalition. However, it never threw its full support behind Hadi because of his ties to Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood group, a pan-Arab movement that many Arab countries, including UAE, consider to be a terrorist organization.
After the UAE-backed separatists seized control of Aden and kicked Hadi's forces out of their camps, the Saudi-led coalition ordered an immediate cease-fire and threatened to bomb the separatists if they did not return to positions they held before the fighting.
It also called for the separatist movement and Hadi's government to attend talks in Saudi Arabia without offering a date. The separatists said they would attend but they did not withdraw from the city and called on their supporters to take part in the protests Thursday.
Thousands of Yemenis had been bussed or driven by car from rural areas in southern Yemen to the rally in downtown Aden. They chanted “Oh Revolution of the South” and waved flags of the old state of South Yemen.
Yemen was split into two countries during much of the Cold War before unifying in 1994.
“[Hadi's forces] won't be able to come back again to the southern streets because we have suffered from them and their actions for many years. God willing, we will achieve victory,” said Youssef al-Kaeity, a pro-Southern Transitional Council activist present at the rally.
