Yemen’s exiled government returns to Aden

Yemen’s exiled Prime Minister Khaled Bahah speaks during a press conference with the Arab League’s Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby after their meeting at the League’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Yemen’s prime minister Khaled Bahah and several of hos ministers traveled to Aden from exile in Saudi Arabia, two months after loyalist forces pushed Iran-backed rebels out of the city.

“The government has moved its base from Riyadh to Aden,” government spokesman Rajeh Badi told AFP.

There was no indication that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled Yemen in late March when the Shiite Huthi rebels closed in on his refuge in the southern port, was set to return.

Bahah’s government will conduct the country’s business from Aden, including “reinforcing the Popular Resistance in Taez” said Badi, in reference to pro-Hadi fighters battling rebels in the central region.

In March, a Saudi-led Arab coalition launched an air campaign against the rebels and their allies among renegade forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Pro-Hadi fighters, backed by troops freshly trained and armed by Saudi Arabia, pushed the rebels out of Aden in July and have since recaptured four other southern provinces.

The United Nations says nearly 4,900 people have been killed and some 25,000 wounded since late March, while 21 million out of Yemen’s population of 25 million have been affected by the conflict.