Sana’a, Aden: Residents of the Yemeni capital Sana’a are stocking up on rare food and fuel supplies after the government in exile decided to divert aid ships from the Al Houthi militia-held north to loyalist areas farther south.
Sources in Yemen’s government confirmed the move, though there has been no official announcement, and Yemen’s exiled information minister said on Tuesday that commercial flights would be diverted from the capital to the southern port of Aden.
The decisions come as southern fighters backed by weapons and air strikes by neighbouring Gulf states have made rapid gains on southern battlefields against the Iran-allied Al Houthis.
A Saudi-led alliance has been bombing Yemen’s dominant group since March in support of the country’s exiled leadership, which now seeks to reestablish its base from Aden.
“Gas stations have closed, and there are fears that the coalition will impose a siege on Sana’a and the cities of the north. We’re afraid,” said Ali Saleh, who was searching for ways to fill up his taxi.
“Everybody’s afraid of the possibility that fighting will break out in Sana’a, and we ask God to protect us,” he said.
Residents in the capital scrambled to stock up on food from stores as the black market price for 20 litres of petrol jumped to $60 (Dh220) in recent days compared to an official price of $15.
The Arab coalition has enforced a near-blockade on the country to prevent arms shipments, but had for almost four months allowed trade and aid vessels to dock at Al Houthi-controlled ports to relieve hungry and impoverished Yemenis in the north.
The Al Houthi movement seized Sana’a and much of the rest of the country in September in what they have called a revolution.
Southern forces loyal to the exiled government have been on the defensive in four months of fighting and bombing that have killed more than 4,000 people, but have made lightning advances northward, seizing Yemen’s biggest military base this week.
Ali Al Ahmadi, a spokesman for the anti-Al Houthi forces, said Al Houthis were ejected from all of the key province of Lahej on Wednesday, bringing the number of southern provinces under anti-Houthi control to three.
The militia sources said 13 internally displaced people returning to their homes in the area were killed by landmines planted by Al Houthis amid the fighting.
Meanwhile, pro-government forces pursued fleeing Al Houthi fighters in south Yemen on Wednesday, military sources said, as they looked to press recent gains against the rebels, including the retaking of a key airbase.
Soldiers loyal to exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi wrested control on Tuesday of Al Anad airbase in Lahj province — one of Yemen’s largest military facilities — from the Al Houthis, and later advanced to take provincial capital Huta.
Military and medical sources said that at least 39 militiamen and 17 loyalist fighters had been killed since Tuesday around Huta, which had been in Al Houthi hands since March.
“[The situation in] Huta is under control after search operations last night and this morning,” a military source said.
Militiamen beat a retreat in the Wadi Al Hussaini region around the road linking Al Anad and Huta, the source said, adding that Lahj’s provincial governor was expected to visit Huta later on Wednesday.
The recapture of Al Anad is a major boost for the defence of second city Aden and paves the way for a possible return by the exiled government to the southern port which was its last refuge before it fled into exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in March.
Al Anad, 60 kilometres north of Aden, is strategically located on the main road north towards both the battleground third city of Taez and the militia-held capital Sana’a.
The vast complex housed US troops overseeing a drone war against Al Qaida in Yemen until shortly before the rebels overran it.
Its loss is a major blow to the insurgents, whose leader Abdul Malek Al Houthi claimed just Sunday that their ouster from Aden after four months of ferocious fighting was merely a “short-term” setback that would be reversed.
To secure Yemen’s second city, pro-government forces are seeking to retake areas in Lahj and neighbouring Abyan province in a bid to prevent a rebel riposte.
Recent days have seen fierce fighting in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan that remains under rebel control, and in the southern town of Loder, according to residents and local officials.
A spokesman for the pro-Hadi forces said on Wednesday however that “the liberation of Zinjibar is now close”.
Yemen has been riven by violence since a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against Al Houthi militiamen earlier this year after they and troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh approached Aden after seizing Sana’a in September.
