AFP/Sanaa
Thousands of armed Shia rebels in Yemen strengthened their positions in the capital Sanaa yesterday as they pressed their campaign to force the government to resign.
The rebels have been fighting an off-conflict with government troops in the northern mountains for the past decade but analysts warned their bid for a greater share of power in a promised new federal Yemen was creating a potentially explosive situation.
The Zaidi Shias are the minority community in mainly Sunni Yemen but they form the majority in the northern highlands, including the Sanaa region.
Rebel activists used cranes to build walls around protest camps across the capital, where protest leaders have given the government a deadline of tomorrow to meet their demands.
In a bid to stem the crisis, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi called for dialogue with the rebels and invited representatives to join a “unity government”.
But the protests, fuelled by a steep increase in petrol prices, are increasing in momentum with demonstrators showing no signs of backing down.
Rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Houthi said on Sunday that the authorities must address protesters’ grievances by the end of the week or additional forms of “legitimate action” would take place.
Yesterday, men armed with Kalashnikovs manned checkpoints around the protest camps, while Yemeni military aircraft circled in the skies of the capital.
On the ground, there was little visible sign of a police or military presence near the makeshift protest sites.
“Our actions are peaceful but if the activists are attacked we will cut the hand of the aggressor,” said Abu Ali al-Asdi, a spokesman for the demonstrators.
“The resignation of the government is a popular demand and we are against all forms of corruption,” he said at a protest camp in west Sanaa.
There was also tension in the south of the capital where hundreds of armed men had built a vast encampment close to the main road linking Sanaa to the south.
“The government will fall on Saturday,” declared Mohamed al-Hojari, an armed rebel stationed on the edge of the camp, where vehicles continued to bring protesters.
Concerned by the gravity of the situation, President Hadi held a meeting with representatives from political parties, the army, and civil bodies who agreed the rebels’ latest actions were “unacceptable”, his adviser Fares al-Saqqaf said.
A delegation is due to meet the rebels’ leader Houthi in his northern fiefdom today when they will deliver a letter “inviting dialogue and encouraging them to join a unity government”.
Yemen has been locked in a protracted transition since long-time strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power in February 2012 following a deadly uprising the previous year.
Armed men loyal to the Shia Houthi movement hold their weapons in the air during a tribal gathering demanding the dismissal of the government in Hamda
