Saudi puppet government in south Yemen collapsing

This Associated Press video says about itself:

(20 April 2018) A spate of deadly drive-by shootings targeting Muslim clerics and preachers has sparked panic and fear in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden, prompting some imams to quit and abandon their mosques while dozens have fled the country.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Yemen: Hadi’s PM prepares to flee as separatists surround palace

YEMEN’S prime minister

That is, the prime minister in the Saudi puppet government. Mostly a government in exile, though present in the southern Aden city since Saudi armed forces invaded.

For decades, there was a dictatorship in Yemen, propped up by the Saudi and United states governments. In 2011, a big ‘Arab Spring’ movement managed to drive out the dictator Saleh. Then, the Saudi absolute monarchy imposed Hadi, army general and vice president of the dictatorship as the new ruler, in an election where he was the only candidate.

In 2015, Hadi was overthrown, resigned and went into exile in Saudi Arabia. Then, the Saudi government pressured him to form a government in exile, using that a pretext to start a bloody war on Yemen. Meanwhile, ‘President’ Hadi is under house arrest in Saudi Arabia.

was preparing to flee to Saudi Arabia yesterday after separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seized the area around the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden in fierce battles.

South Yemen used to be an independent country with a leftist government. After the right-wing North Yemen government invaded, that independence ceased. Many southern Yemenis don’t like the Saudi occupiers and their puppets and would like to have an independent country again.

People in Aden have demonstrated before against the Saudi occupation, especially against there being no electricity for civilians. At least one peaceful demonstrator was killed then.

A Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE, armed and advised by Britain and the US, has been battling rebels in northern Yemen for nearly three years in a bid to prop up President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

But despite having a common enemy, the UAE and Mr Hadi have been locked in a long-running power struggle, which boiled over on Sunday as clashes erupted across Aden.

Fighters loyal to the so-called Southern Transitional Council fought all way to the gates of the palace in central Aden, forcing Mr Hadi’s troops to abandon their positions.

Security officials said Mr Hadi’s Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghar and several cabinet members would leave Yemen imminently for Riyadh, where Mr Hadi has been for most of the war.

Saudi troops who have been guarding the palace for months stopped the separatists at the gate, preventing them from entering.

Mr Hadi has described the separatists’ action as a “coup”.

The violence has killed at least 36 people and wounded 185 since Sunday, according to the Red Cross.

UK lawyers call on UN rights council to suspend Saudi Arabia. Most of the prominent Saudis highlighted in lawyers’ call to action remain detained without charges. Some have simply disappeared: here.