In late March, the Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab states began an aerial campaign against Houthi positions at the request of the country’s president-in-exile Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
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Shortly after their arrival, militants believed to be linked to al-Qaeda torched St Joseph Church in central Aden, local journalists reported, sparking a major fire.
Yemen’s government spokesman says the Cabinet has returned to the country after months spent in exile in Saudi Arabia and is now in the port city of Aden.
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 coalition forces and the Popular Resistance in Marib should secure Marib and Al Jawf provinces before Sanaa as they can not go towards Sanaa and leave their rear exposed to the Houthis“, he said.
Government spokesman Rajeh Badi said Bahah, who is also vice president, was accompanied by seven ministers when he arrived in Aden, where local fighters backed by Saudi-led forces drove the Houthi movement out in July.
The United Nations says nearly 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.
Increasingly, however, the nation is split along the north-south line that it was before the 1990’s civil war, and numerous government’s supporters in Aden are flying not the Yemeni flag, but the flag of South Yemen.
They still control large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
Hadi remains in Saudi Arabia, said presidential officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
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In Sanaa, residents said coalition air strikes had cut off two bridges, one linking the city to the major Red Sea port of Hodeida and the other to energy-producing Marib.
