Al Mukalla: Forces loyal to exiled Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi were close to turning on each other Thursday, over control of an important border crossing with Saudi Arabia in the south eastern province of Hadramout.
The tension signals increasing fragmentation among Hadi’s forces. Local security and government officfials said that tens of armed men loyal to the newly appointed chief of staff stormed the Al Wadee’ah border crossing with Saudi Arabia, forcing other army forces commanded by the 1st Military Region to retreat.
“The armed group is being led by Hashem Al Ahmer and aims to drag the peaceful border crossing area into violence,” a security official from the 1st Military Region told Gulf News on Thursday.
Al Ahmer is a powerful tribal and security chief who fled to Saudi Arabia after Al Houthis, his enemy, seized control of the Yemeni capital in September of last year.
Meanwhile, the country’s chief of staff, General Mohammad Al Magadishi, who was appointed by Hadi in May, told the pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat, that forces of ‘legitimacy’ recaptured the crossing after sending army reinforcements to the area to secure the flow of refugees pouring in, insinuating that forces of the 1st Military Region were loyal to Al Houthis.
“We are not loyal to Al Houthis. We are abiding by orders from President Hadi and the local authority in Hadramout,” the security officer told Gulf News.
In Riyadh, the governor of Hadramout, Aden Bahamead, who fled Yemen after Al Qaida took control of the provincial capital of Al Mukalla in April, defended the forces of the 1st Military Region, accusing a ‘tribal leader’ of handing over the crossing to ‘militiamen’, in a thinly-veiled accusation against Al Ahmer. He urged Presdient Hadi to step in to defuse tension before an escalation occurs.
“Soldiers of the 1st Military Region are responsible for protecting the crossing and allowing armed groups to control it will have dangerous repercussions,” the statement said.
After the statement was issued, officials ordered that the crossing be shutdown until Al Ahmer’s forces pull out.
Tensions at the crossing has added to the woes of thousands of stranded Yemenis outside the crossing seeking to flee as violence spreads throughout Yemen.
In April, the commander of the 1st Military Region, general Abdul Rahman Al Halili, announced his support to Hadi in his war against Al Houthis. Earlier he had attended the Al Houthi constitutional declaration ceremony after they had overthrew Hadi in February.
