Unrest continues in Yemen day after the peace agreement

Despite Sunday’s peace agreement in Yemen, the Houthi group still refuses to withdraw from sites they had previously controlled.

Militants affiliated to the Houthis have stormed the home of activist and Nobel Peace prize winner Tawakkol Karman, as well as two homes owned by an advisor to the Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in the capital Sanaa.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that the militants looted the contents of the homes.

Houthi leader Ali Al-Emad confirmed, via Facebook, that his group has seized the palaces of the president’s defence advisor in Sanaa.

In the same context, Houthis broke into the headquarters of the Suhail satellite channel in Sanaa, owned by tribal leader and businessman Hameed Al-Ahmar.

State Minister and Governor of Sanaa, Abdelkader Hilal, yesterday resigned explaining that he failed to exercise control of the situation in the capital, and that the Houthis seized one of his cars at a checkpoint, and that he was powerless in the face of the assault, let alone in protecting citizens.

Despite assertions by the Yemeni president that the peace agreement has put an end to the internal warfare and “represented an honourable solution for the nation”, the Houthi spokesperson Mohamed Abdel-Salam announced they would continue escalating until his group’s objectives are met, namely forming a new government as stipulated in the agreement.

He considered the attacks launched by the group against state institutions over the past five days a “victory for the Yemeni people and their revolution”.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health said that at least 200 people have been killed in the recent clashes in Sanaa, while 461 have been injured.

In response to the developments in Yemen, the International Union of Muslim Scholars has denounced the Houthis as “seeking to stage a militant and tribal coup against the choices of the Yemeni people”, in an attempt to “replace the language of dialogue with the language of weapons”.