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Yemen govt forces enter Aden, driving out southern separatists

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ADEN: Yemen government forces entered the interim capital Aden and recaptured a nearby province on Wednesday, pushing back separatists who had seized parts of the south this month.


The losses came nearly three weeks after the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized control of Aden, the government’s base since Ansar Allah took over the northern capital Sanaa in 2014.


The clashes between the STC and government forces — who for years have fought alongside each other against the Ansar Allah — have raised concerns that the famine threatened country could break apart entirely.


The separatists’ seizure of Aden was seen as a major gain allowing the Security Belt, a paramilitary force loyal to the STC, to press on to take other strategic areas.


However, the Yemeni government has drafted in reinforcements from the north and mounted a pushback that appears to have met little resistance.


“The national army and security services reached at this moment the interim capital and begin to secure districts,” Yemeni Information Minister Moammer al Eryani said on Twitter.


The main gate of the city’s airport had also been secured, he added.


An AFP correspondent in the east of the city witnessed shelling by advancing government forces who came fresh from their success in taking back control of Abyan province to the east. A pro-government source said that fighting had erupted in the streets of Aden, as loyalist troops fanned out there. Eryani also said “heroes of the national army and security agencies have retaken Zinjibar city, the capital of Abyan province, and complete their control over other districts of the province.”


Abyan was the second southern province to be retaken by government forces in southern Yemen in days following clashes with the Security Belt. Earlier in the week, government forces regained control of Shabwa province after beating back an attack by STC forces.


The Yemeni interior ministry issued a statement urging the separatists to “lay down their arms” and surrender.


The new fighting comes despite repeated calls for a ceasefire by a Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in the Yemen war in 2015 in support of the government after the Ansar Allah seized the capital Sanaa and most of the Arab world’s poorest nation.


Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, in what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While they have also fought against the Ansar Allah in a years-long war, STC forces want to see South Yemen regain the independence it gave up with unification in 1990. The separatists want to address what they say is a history of exploitation and marginalisation of their people.


— AFP


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