Aden was the last refuge of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi before he fled to Saudi Arabia in March and has been a key battleground ever since. The attack also set the ministry on fire and destroyed some nearby buildings.
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Warplanes returned for another raid on Sanaa around noon, but there was no immediate word on casualties or damage.
Four out of five Yemenis are in need of some sort of humanitarian assistance, and on Wednesday the United Nations officially added the Yemen crisis to its list of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, intended to travel to Sanaa on Sunday for talks with the Houthis after wrapping up negotiations in Muscat, during which Saudi-led forces demanded that Houthis and their allied units guaranteed they would not use the pause to advance on the South or eastern Yemen’s territories held by forces loyal to the president Hadi.
AQAP has carried out attacks on the Houthis, seen as a foe due to their Iranian alliance and adherence to a form of Shiite Islam, but has not become a leading combatant in the conflict.
United Nations: Under mounting pressure from UN officials who warn of the risk of an imminent starvation, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government said it expected a pause in the fighting to be declared to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid, a government minister said on Thursday.
The dawn strike targeted their vehicle as it left the base of the 27th Mechanised Brigade in the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, the official told AFP.
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On April 14, UNSC Resolution 2216 – which was drafted by members of a Saudi-led anti-Houthi coalition and submitted by Jordan – was endorsed by 14 countries at the UNSC. More than 2,600 people have been killed in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country since March, according to United Nations figures. The U.S. still has drones and other aircraft at bases in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti. In the ensuing chaos, terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have grown in number. They have claimed a series of attacks including a auto bomb in Yemen’s capital Sanaa which killed at least 28 people on Monday.
