ADEN: Thousands of Yemenis protested Thursday against a new UN plan to end the devastating conflict between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government, saying it would legitimize the insurgents’ power grab.
The demonstrations in the southern city of Aden and other locations took place shortly before UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived in Sanaa for peace talks with the Houthis.
“We reject the plan of Ould Cheikh (Ahmed),” read one of the banners carried by protesters in Aden — the government’s temporary base — who responded to a call by authorities in the city to rally.
“No to an initiative that legitimizes the coup,” said another.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Saturday rejected the envoy’s peace plan, saying it would reward the Houthis for seizing the capital and “opens a door toward more suffering and war.”
Hadi has described the new proposal as an “explicit departure” from the UN Security Council’s resolution 2216, which calls on rebels to withdraw from territory they have captured since 2014.
The proposed UN resolution would demand that all parties in Yemen immediately honor an April cease-fire and resume peace negotiations.
The draft Security Council resolution, obtained Wednesday by AP, also calls for transparent and timely investigations of alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law — and accountability for those responsible for violations and abuses.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Tuesday he expects to circulate the draft to the council “in the coming days.” It was first published by Inner City Press.
On Thursday, a military official said eight rebels and five pro-Hadi soldiers had been killed in clashes in central Taiz province over the past 24 hours.
Eleven rebels were wounded in the fighting in Salo, which has forced most of the district’s 5,000 residents to flee, the official said.
In Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramawt, a suicide attacker crashed his bomb-laden truck into the fence of a military camp for naval forces, a security source said.
The refrigerated truck, used to transport fresh fish, exploded at the fence, wounding three soldiers and two civilians, the source said.
Hadi’s troops, backed by the coalition, recaptured Mukalla in April from Al-Qaeda militants who had ruled the city for one year.
