Alwaght- Yemeni militias, backed by, the United Arab Emirates, have seized two Saudi-backed forces bases near the southern port of Aden early on Tuesday, triggering fresh clashes between nominal allies that have been waging a brutal aggression on Yemeni nations since 2015.
The UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces and the forces loyal to Yemen’s resigned President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who is based in Riyadh, are both part of a Saudi-led military coalition. But the separatists broke with the Saudi mercenaries this month, seizing its temporary base of Aden on Aug. 10. On Tuesday, they took two Hadi forces’ military bases in Zinjibar, around 60 km east of Aden in Abyan province, Reuters reported.
The separatists’ seizure of two more Saudi mercenaries’ bases in Abyan province, the birthplace of Mansour Hadi, suggested they were not planning to back down.
The two sides pursue different agendas for Yemen’s future; the separatists want independence from Yemen, while the other militants seek to bring Hadi back to power, but the two camps have joined forces in the Saudi-led battle against Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, which has been both running state affairs and defending the country against the aggression.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.
The years-long military aggression has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations has warned that more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.
