Govt forces control most of Yemeni lands: President

By Mohammed al-Samei

SANAA

Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said Tuesday government forces control the majority of Yemeni territories.

“The government controls 85 percent of Yemen’s territories, while the Houthis and their allies control only 15 percent,” the official Saba news agency quoted Hadi as saying in a speech to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit in Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Yemen has remained wracked by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels and allied forces of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched an extensive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled Saudi-backed government.

“Yemen is facing one of the most tragic humanitarian catastrophes,” Hadi warned.

The Yemeni president said diseases and epidemics were rife in Yemen -- the poorest state in the Arab region -- amid high rates of crime and terrorism.

“This requires working together to…rebuilding all provinces and helping the government carry out its plans for economic revival in areas under its control, which make up 85 percent of Yemeni lands,” he said.

Hadi said the Houthi coup has aborted the process of political transition in Yemen.

“My country is suffering from a deteriorating humanitarian situation because of this coup against legitimacy,” he said.