(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Despite the presence of security forces and armed government loyalists, hundreds took to the streets in the capital, Sana’a. Protests also flared in the southern cities of Aden and Taiz.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of an armed movement in northern Yemen composed of adherents of Zaydism, an offshoot of Shia Islam, said: “Yemenis should take advantage of this opportunity and seriously mobilise . . . which will be responsible for changing the reality and removing this criminal government.”
Besides the popular protests at corruption and the failure of democratic reforms, the Yemeni government is having to contend with the intermittent Houthi insurgency in the north, an increasingly vocal secessionist movement in the south, and a flourishing al-Qaeda presence.
Analysts have given warning that if these various opponents start to co-ordinate their actions, the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh will face a real crisis.
Protests earlier this year were led by the mainstream opposition parties, who have since agreed to begin talks with the government.
But since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt last week, more spontaneous demonstrations by students and civil society activists have erupted. Analysts say these will be harder to contain if they gain momentum.
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