HOUTHIS CALL FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY

▶ Demand comes after tensions with supporters of former president Saleh

The Houthi rebels have called for a state of emergency for Sanaa and surrounds, saying it is necessary for them to identify “armed bandits” seeking to destabilise their rule in the Yemeni capital.

Abdul Hakim Al Khaiwani, the deputy interior minister of Sanaa, made the call to the judiciary committee after his militias clashed with their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Just days after Mr Saleh celebrated his political party’s 35th anniversary, Houthi militants at a checkpoint killed one of his top military commanders, Col Khaled Al Radhi, and reportedly injured Ahmed Ali, Mr Saleh’s son and potential heir.

The Houthis said the state of emergency would allow them to conduct a proper investigation of what happened at the checkpoint that day, saying armed bandits had been responsible.

“This is needed so that the authorities can conduct its duties on the streets to ensure the peoples’ rights and to defend itself from the enemies,” Mr Al Khaiwani said.

Relations between the two parties deteriorated last month as each accused the other of conspiring with “the enemy” and settling for a peace that would entail surrender.

Tensions have since subsided between the two sides.

The two formed an alliance when the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sanaa and tried to drive the internationally recognised government from power in 2014.

Mr Saleh was forced to stand down after protests in 2011 but kept control of sections of the military, who fought alongside the Houthis against government forces and the Saudi coalition backing his successor, president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

A Saudi-led coalition including the UAE intervened in the war in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis swept across the country.

The coalition and Yemeni soldiers drove the Iran-backed rebels from much of southern Yemen but the fighting became bogged down in Taez province and along the Red Sea coast.

The UN said that more than 8,400 people have been killed and more than 3 million have been displaced in Yemen’s civil war, pushing the country to the brink of famine and sparking a widespread cholera epidemic.

The World Health Organisation and Yemen’s health ministry said the cholera outbreak in the country has infected 612,703 people and killed 2,048 since it began in April. Some districts are still reporting increases in the number of new cases.

But the overall spread of the epidemic has slowed in the past couple of months, with the daily number of new suspected cases cut to about 3,000 in recent days.

The Houthis said the state of emergency would allow them to conduct a proper investigation