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Yemeni Government Returning to Aden from Exile in Saudi Arabia

The newly returned government’s focus will be on restoring security and stability, first to Aden and then to the country, an official told the Associated Press.

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It also comes as government troops advance in Marib province east of Sanaa, with air cover and ground support from coalition forces. Dozens from both sides have been killed in action.

The Houthis took over Aden and other areas of the country following a coup in February which deposed Hadi, Bahah, and the Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

The meeting was held in Aden, two months after the southern city was retaken from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

However, he also said that Yemenis can not wait for the government – backed by a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, which includes the UAE – to subdue the Houthis before providing basic goods and services.

On Wednesday night, the Saudi-led coalition started airstrikes targeting houses of Houthi Shiite leaders and officials loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A rocket launches from a United Arab Emirates military base near…

Government spokesman Rajeh Badi said Bahah, who is also vice president, was accompanied by seven ministers when he arrived in Aden, which loyalist fighters backed by Saudi-led troops recaptured from Houthi forces in July.

The United Nations says almost 4,900 people have been killed and some 25,000 wounded since late March, while 21 million out of Yemen’s population of 25 million have been affected by the conflict.

The Saudis have demanded the Houthi hand back power to Hadi, though the movement remains in control of much of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

In the latest violence in Aden, gunmen set fire to a Roman Catholic church on Wednesday – one of few remaining in the city.

Their presence, Badi said, “Sends a message to both the inside and outside (world) that all the Yemeni files will be in the hands of a legitimate government on Yemeni lands”.

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UN-sponsored talks in Geneva between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in June failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Smoke billows from a Houthi-controlled military base after a Saudi-led air strike hit its weapons depots in Yemen's capital Sanaa