Hadi challenges Shiite ‘coup’ after fleeing Sanaa
ADEN: Yemen’s beleaguered Western-backed president escaped house arrest and fled the capital to friendly territory Saturday, labelling as a coup the grab for power by the Shiite militia that had held him.
An aide said presidential guards had sneaked Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi out of his residence in Sanaa, and that he later made it to the main southern city of Aden.
Hissupporterstherehaverefused to recognise the authority of the presidential council installed by the Huthi militia to replace him, and Hadi himself called on world powers to ‘reject the coup’.
In a statement, signed as president, he said all measures taken by the Huthis since they seized Sanaa in September and began a push to extend their control farther afield were ‘null and illegitimate’.
The aide said Hadi will call on parliament to meet in Aden, as powerful tribes in the southern provinces of Marib, Jawaf and Baida urged him to declare Sanaa an ‘occupied city’.
He said Hadi “remains the legitimate president and that he resigned under pressure from Huthis”.
The president called for the national commission overseeing the drafting of a new constitution to create a federation to convene, saying it should meet in Aden or Taez province until Sanaa “returns as a safe capital for all Yemenis, and the withdrawal of all armed militia”.
Hadi urged civil and military institutions to “abide by the decisions of the constitutional authority and to protect it, including above all the armed forces and security forces”.
And he demanded an end to the ‘house arrest’ of Prime Minister Khalid Bahah and other officials, urging Arab states and the UN Security Council to “protect the process in Yemen... and not to legitimise the coup in any way”.
A source in the presidential force said Huthi gunmen at Hadi’s Sanaa residence were tricked into looting a vehicle carrying arms while the president was sneaked out of a back gate.
The aide insisted that Hadi left “without an arrangement or even informing any of the political parties”.
The security official in Aden told AFP that Hadi was staying in a presidential residence in the portcity’sKhormaksardiplomatic district.
The Huthis, whose power base is in the mainly Shiite northern highlands, overran Sanaa unopposed in September.
Last month, they seized the presidential palace and besieged Hadi’s residence, prompting him to offer his resignation.
The Huthis have pushed their advance south and west into mainly Sunni areas, where they have met with fierce resistance from tribesmen and al-Qaeda.