Gov. Gaafar Mohamed Saad was traveling early Sunday to his office in a convoy when the explosion ripped through the vehicles in the Tawahi district of the southern port city.
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Police said initial reports indicated the man, believed to be aged 29, had also threatened other bystanders. A Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the Houthis in March.
Jafar Mohammed Saad was recently appointed as governor of Aden.
The attack killed Saad and four of of his bodyguards, the sources said.
He was known to be close to Mr Hadi, who returned to Aden last month after months in exile in Riyadh. Since the conflict escalated, the Islamic State group has managed to expand its foothold in the country, staging a series of deadly bombings, usually aimed at Shia targets such as mosques.
Yemen’s civil war has been raging for eight months and and United Nations is hoping to organise talks later this month between the government, lead by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who support former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
It is the first time the envoy has paid an official visit to Aden, which Hadi declared the temporary capital after Arab coalition forces seized it from the Houthis in July.
No one has so far claimed those attacks.
Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March.
Before the bomb blast, masked gunmen aboard motorcycles held separated attacks on cars in Aden and killed on Saturday a military intelligence official, Col. Aqeel al-Khodr, and the judge who had sentenced al-Qaida rebels, Mohsen Alwan.
The terrorist group, ISIS or Daesh, has a presence in Yemen, amid an ongoing civil war.
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As per to an AP count, Islamic State had claimed that it had put to death not less than 159 people and injured at least 345 in the bombings this year in Yemen. The UN mediator travelled to Aden to press for the government and rebels to open long-delayed peace talks on December 12, a Yemeni official said.
