SANAA: Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sunday in a show of support for the insurgents, two years after a Gulf coalition intervened against the rebels. The Yemen conflict pits the Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies against government troops supported since March 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition.
The Iran-backed rebels staged a show of force over the weekend with the mass rally in Sanaa and a symbolic court ruling against Yemen’s embattled president. Crowds converged on the capital’s Sabaeen Square on Sunday, chanting their vows to “resist to the end”.
The protest came a day after a rebel court in Sanaa sentenced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to death for high treason in absentia. The court found Hadi guilty of “usurping the title of president after the end of his term in office ... instigating attacks by Saudi Arabia and undermining the independence and integrity of the Republic of Yemen”, the rebel-controlled Saba agency said.
Six members of the Hadi government were also sentenced to death. Hadi, whose two-year term in office expired in February 2014, now lives in Saudi Arabia although he also visits his government’s temporary capital of Aden.