Khartoum: Hundreds of Sudanese troops arrived in Aden to bolster the campaign against the Al Houthi militiamen in Yemen.
About 700 Sudanese soldiers came by sea on Saturday to the southern port city of Yemen, which is under coalition control, the Al Masdar news website reported.
Abdullah Hamoud, a witness and resident, said by phone that he saw Sudanese troops in armoured and military vehicles driving in the city.
The coalition is trying to reinstate the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which crumbled after rebels overtook the capital, Sana’a, last year, forcing him to flee to Saudi Arabia.
The coalition recaptured Aden in July and has made ground advances, but Sana’a and other regions remain under rebel control. While Hadi remains in Riyadh, Yemen’s prime minister and other cabinet members who had followed him into exile recently returned to Aden.
At least 2,355 civilians have been killed and nearly 5,000 wounded since the coalition airstrikes began in March, according to the United Nations, whose efforts to broker a peace deal have failed. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse Iran of supporting the Al Houthis, who deny being proxies of Iran.
On a visit on Saturday to Riyadh, Saudi’s capital, UN envoy Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad delivered a letter to Hadi from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, inviting him to renew peace talks, the state Saba news agency said. The Saudis and their allies say that Al Houthis must disarm and pull back from territory they seized, including Sana’a, before UN-sponsored peace talks can resume.
