New clashes in Yemen complicate hopes for peace
Clashes over control of Yemen's oil-rich southern lands continue. In a latest bout of violence between rival security forces in Shabwa, at least 80 people have been killed and 68 wounded, according to health officials.
These new attacks were reportedly between members of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islah party and government security forces in the provincial capital of Ataq, which in turn sparked intense street fighting.
According to local Yemeni officials, the clashes followed the appointment of a new Islah party commander, at a time when the governor of Shabwa ordered the Southern Giants Brigade, composed of Lahj and Abyan tribesmen expelled by the Houthis in early 2014 from Dammaj in Saada governorate where they are natives, to crack down on rebel troops and secure state facilities in the province.
In this context, Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has expressed its "full support" for the governor of Shabwa and urged government forces to impose stability and security throughout the governorate. Alongside this, the Council has decreed new decisions including the dismissal of military and security leaders, who have been accused of planning a rebellion against the provincial authority.
In the wake of the escalating violence, the US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderkin, has begun a tour of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman as part of diplomatic efforts to try to extend the truce reached by the UN last April when all parties involved in the war "agreed to halt air, land and maritime military operations inside Yemen and beyond" for two months, as well as to strengthen efforts to achieve peace.
According to the State Department, Lenderkin's trip to the Gulf states will seek to "help significantly extend the benefits of the truce to all Yemenis and pave the way for a permanent ceasefire and an inclusive and durable Yemeni-led solution to the conflict".
The special envoy will also discuss the current instability in Shabwa as well as the need to return to a state of calm after the intensification of attacks in the eastern province, as well as outlining the "need" to send economic aid to the Yemeni people.
According to a statement, since the outbreak of the civil war in Yemen, the US has sent "more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid this year alone, bringing our total contribution to the humanitarian response in Yemen to nearly $5 billion since the crisis began eight years ago" and urged "donors to give generously" and "immediately make available previous pledges for the sake of the people of Yemen".
For his part, the head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, said that "the fighting that took place in Shabwa confirms the importance of coming together across the state", while announcing new measures aimed at ending the fighting in Shabwa and holding accountable those responsible for the escalation of the conflict.
