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Fighting rages in Yemen capital despite UN talk of deal
Fighting raged in the Yemeni capital on Sunday despite an announcement by the UN envoy that pro-government forces and Shia rebels were poised to sign a deal.
A week of fighting between the two sides has left dozens of people dead and forced the suspension of all flights into or out of Sanaa airport, which lies within the battle zone. There was no let-up in the fighting during the night despite an after-dark curfew ordered by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. The fighting centred on the campus of Al Iman University, a bastion of Sunnis that the Shia rebels have been trying to capture, witnesses said. It came despite the announcement by UN envoy Jamal Benomar late on Saturday that a deal had been reached after “intense consultations with all the political parties, including (rebel movement) Ansarullah.” Benomar did not specifically mention a ceasefire nor did he say when the deal would be signed, although he said preparations were under way for the signing.
Forces allied to the government have been battling to halt the rebels, who swept into Sanaa from their mountain stronghold in the far north last month and set up armed protest camps across the capital to press their demands. Hadi has called the rebel offensive a “coup attempt”. He has agreed to involve the rebels in the formation of a new government to replace the unpopular administration that imposed austerity measures, including a fuel price hike, earlier this year. He has also agreed to partially reverse the price hike. But the rebels have demanded posts in key state institutions as part of a push for greater political clout. The fighting in the north of the capital has raged continuously since Thursday when nearly 40 people were killed in a single day. Two prominent opponents of the rebels — Islamist cleric Abdel Majid Al Zindani and General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar, an army commander whose troops played a prominent role in a 2011 uprising that forced veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh from power — are both inside the Al Iman University campus, multiple sources said. Residents of northern districts have begun to flee their homes, an AFP correspondent reported. The streets of the capital were largely deserted as shops remained closed and the education ministry ordered schools to suspend lessons indefinitely. Sanaa University told students to stay on holiday until mid-October after its campus was hit by shelling. One of the capital’s main markets, the Ali Mohsen Souk, has been closed for three days, which residents said had started to cause problems in obtaining fruit and vegetables. Posted by: Steve White 2014-09-22 |
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