Separatists seize checkpoints in southern Yemen amid political crisis
Separatists have seized all security checkpoints in the southern Yemeni city of Ataq as political uncertainty looms large over the Arab country.
According to reports on Saturday, gunmen from the secessionist Harak movement of southern Yemen overran security checkpoints in Ataq, Shabwa Province.
The reports added that the government forces showed no resistance during the assault.
Meanwhile, local authorities in Shabwa stated that they would desist receiving orders from the central government in the country’s capital, Sana’a.
On Friday, the southern Yemen separatists launched rallies in the city of Aden, calling for independence from Sana’a.
The secessionists raised the flag of Southern Yemen over the airport and some of the government buildings in Aden.
The separatists’ attack on Ataq checkpoints came two days after President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the cabinet of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned over pressure from Shia Ansarullah revolutionaries of Houthi movement. The parliament, however, rejected Hadi’s resignation pending an emergency session on Sunday.
Southern Yemen was formerly an independent country, which merged with the Northern Yemen to form the present-day Yemen in 1990.
The impoverished Arab country is currently grappling with a severe political crisis between the central government and Ansarullah fighters.
In September 2014, Ansarullah revolutionary fighters gained control of Sana’a following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the country’s former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In the same month, Ansarullah fighters and the Yemeni government inked the UN-backed ceasefire deal that called for the withdrawal of the revolutionaries from the capital once a neutral prime minister was picked. The deal has failed to deliver any practical results so far.
FNR/HSN/SS
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