SANAA: Yemen’s dominant Houthi group said on Tuesday that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and he was being sought as a fugitive from justice.

Houthi militiamen seized the capital Sanaa in September and laid siege to Hadi’s residence last month, prompting his resignation and leading to a political vacuum.

But Hadi escaped to Aden in southern Yemen last week after a month under house arrest and on Tuesday he officially recanted his resignation. He now holds court guarded by thousands of tribesmen and army loyalists from the mainly Sunni south.

“The higher revolutionary committee is following the suspicious moves by Hadi, who lost his legitimacy to act as president of the Republic of Yemen, and whose reckless acts harmed the Yemeni people,” the Houthi group said, its first official reaction since Hadi fled.

“We are seeing a Libya-zation in Yemen. It’s polarized between two competing governments. Thankfully unlike Libya, the competition hasn’t descended into fighting — yet,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a researcher with the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Sources close to the president told Reuters he is considering declaring Aden as Yemen’s interim capital until Sanaa is taken back from the Houthis. Loyalist army units and tribesmen from Hadi’s neighboring province of Abyan now run the city and much of the south.