SANAA - Yemeni security forces opened fire Sunday on demonstrators in the southern city of Daleh, wounding three people, one critically, witnesses said.Clashes broke out between demonstrators, mainly students demanding the release of a teacher, believed to be an opposition activist, who has been detained by the authorities for two months, the witnesses said. Security forces opened fire and three people were wounded, the sources said. The teacher two months, and security forces who opened fire, they told AFP.
On Saturday clashes also broke out between protesters and security forces in the city of Al-Houta, around 135 kilometres (85 miles) south of Sanaa, witnesses said. Demonstrators set fire to tyres in the streets and also torched shops owned by northerners, witnesses said, while the authorities announced that more than 30 people were arrested in connection with the protests.
The latest unrest comes amid calls by the so-called Southern Movement, a loose coalition of opposition groups, for protests to take place to underscore demands for secession from the north, in the run-up to a conference due to take place Wednesday in London on Yemen. The movement has called for a six-hour general strike on Monday morning and for demonstrations to take place on Tuesday as well.
South Yemen was an independent state from the time of Britain's withdrawal in 1967 until the country was united in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended with the region overrun by northern troops.
Southerners complaining of discrimination by the north and a lack of financial aid hold frequent demonstrations demanding either increased autonomy or independence for the south.