Saudi, UAE step up efforts to end crisis
Saudi and Emirati envoys shuttled between Yemeni government forces and besieging southern separatists in second city Aden yesterday in a bid to end a tense standoff after days of deadly infighting.
The Sunday assault on the embattled government's headquarters by its former allies has opened up a new front in the devastating civil war that has created what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two major contributors to a military coalition that has backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since he fled into exile in 2015.
But they have struggled to keep together the disparate alliance supporting him against Huthi Shia rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north.
South Yemen was an independent country until union with the north in 1990 and Hadi has relied heavily on militia that support its restoration.
The separatists said they were in full control of Aden on Thursday.
Only the presidential palace in the north of the city remains under the control of government forces, military sources said.
At least 38 people have been killed and 222 wounded in Aden since Sunday, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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