Exiled Yemeni ministers arrive in recaptured Aden

Several ministers and top intelligence officials of the exiled Yemeni government have arrived in Aden for the first time since the Houthi rebels captured the southern port city.

The officials arrived by helicopter from neighbouring Saudi Arabia – the seat of the government in exile – on Thursday, a day after their loyal forces recaptured Aden from the Houthis.

“[Exiled President] Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi delegated this group to return to Aden to work to prepare the security situation and ensure stability ahead of a revival of the institutions of state in Aden,” one of the officials told the Reuters news agency.

On Wednesday, Popular Resistance fighters – a southern militia that has been the mainstay of support for Hadi – recaptured the provincial government headquarters in the Mualla district opposite Aden’s main commercial port, Ali al-Ahmadi, a militia spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

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They also advanced in Aden’s Crater district, where a presidential palace is located, he said.

Pro-government fighters entered the small commercial port in Mualla itself, near the main port which the rebels had failed to take, according to military sources.

General Fadhl al-Hasan, leading pro-government forces’ operations in Aden’s west, told AFP that his troops have also captured the coastal road overlooking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti.

The road links Aden to the rebel-held city of Mocha, home to a port near Bab el-Mandeb.

“The Resistance is at the gates of the city of Mocha,” through which rebel military reinforcements used to arrive from northern cities under their control, Hasan said.

Reference: PUNCH