The unprecedented massive march took eight hours – from dawn till noon – to walk the roads and settle at Alsabeen Square, the largest, vast empty square of nearly 70 square kilometers.
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The civil war in Yemen has pit troops and militiamen loyal to the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Shia rebels and Saleh loyalists.
“Economic affairs will be the priority of our work in the coming period”, he told the crowd who waved Yemeni flags and chanted slogans against the war at Sanaa’s Sabeen Square. They included five Yemenis and one Pakistani national.
The conflict escalated when Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched in March of past year a massive military campaign in the country aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.
In another speech broadcast on Houthi-run television, Mr Samad ordered the Houthi delegation attending peace negotiations in Muscat not to speak with the United Nations envoy leading the talks, saying they should first return to Sanaa for consultations with the council.
Fighting also escalated on Saturday for control of Yemen’s central bank, as President Hadi made plans to relocate the institution outside Sanaa, and appoint a new board of directors, sources in his government told Reuters.
A spokesman for Hadi’s government could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sanaa last week saw the return of deadly airstrikes after a four-month respite and there has been an intensification of fighting with the Saudi-led Arab coalition that supports the ousted President Abd-Rabbou Mansour Hadi, but which is struggling to make advances on the ground.
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Separate Saudi strikes last week in the same area killed at least 19 people, majority identified by authorities as children at a school in Haydan.Voicing concern about the rising civilian casualties, the USA military said Saturday that it had slashed the number of US advisers supporting the Saudi coalition.A US military spokesman in Bahrain told reporters the US contingent was cut from 45 military planners to fewer than five.
