Fierce fighting in southern Yemen between Emirati-backed separatists and the country’s internationally recognised government killed nearly 50 fighters this week on both sides, security officials said on Tuesday.
The flare-up of clashes in the province of Abyan was the latest blow to a cease-fire agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia late in 2019 with the goal of closing the rift between the two sides. The sides are allies in a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels since 2015.
At least 47 fighters were killed and around 90 others were wounded in the clashes centred in Zinjibar, the Abyan provincial capital, and the officials described it as the fiercest in the recent months.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media. The fighting between Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the separatists’ Southern Transitional Council started in August 2019. Last fall, the two sides signed a power-sharing deal in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, but the agreement was never implemented.