SANAA, 20 May 2007 — Five Yemeni opposition parties said yesterday the ongoing fighting between army troops and rebels in the northern province of Saada endangers the country’s national unity and must be halted.
“The war in Saada is fomenting sectarian and ethnic strife and its political and economic consequences are dangerously deepening,” the parties, grouped under the Joint Meeting Bloc, said at the conclusion of a two-day conference.
Tens of thousands of troops are trying to quell the rebellion and to put and end to the fighting that escalated in December in Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia.
The parties also warned of the “dramatic escalation in the number of fatalities and casualties in the ranks of the army troops and citizens.”
In a statement, they called for the release of “all the political detainees” in Saada.
