Yemeni president Sanaa – Khalid Haroji Several cities in Yemen witnessed massive marches on Thursday demanding the Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi quickly work on structuring the army and the security on a national and professional basis , following the instructions of the Gulf initiative.
Protesters raised pictures of the martyrs and called for trailing those involved in the killings of peaceful demonstrators during the revolution. They confirmed that the revolution will continue until its demands are fulfilled.
Demonstrators also condemned the attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda on military camps that killed 200, wounded other 200 and resulted in the detention of 70 others, in addition to the seizure of large quantities of light, medium and heavy weapons and of various military equipment. They accused military leaders loyal to the former president of being behind the massacres.
The governor of Abyan accused the former regime’s authority of conspiring against the province of Abyan by giving clear orders to the security forces to hand over the province to Al-Qaeda, according to Akhbar Al Youm newspaper. The governor also demanded the formation of a military and security committee to investigate into the incidents, saying that the security officials were the first to flee from the province.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni president revealed several infiltration attempts of Al-Qaeda leaders and members from different Arab and Islamic countries to Yemen, who are taking the advantage of the critical circumstances the country has gone through over the last year. He added that Al-Qaeda aims at establishing an Islamic emirate in Abyan.
Hadi said in an interview with Okaz Saudi newspaper that the battles took place last year between the army and Al-Qaeda in Yemen and resulted in the killing of hundreds of Al-Qaeda members. He confirmed the existence of Al-Qaeda in Chechnya, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Syria, Algeria and Egypt.
He added that the Armed Forces have always fought Al-Qaeda, and that Yemen will never allow the organisation to continue spreading instability in Yemen.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar, called the international community to support the country at humanitarian and economical levels, underlining the challenges Yemen has to face in the second transitional period, as it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world.
Omar stressed in a press conference the necessity to address the security and humanitarian situation in Yemen, as well as the need to restructure the army under a national leadership ready to work in a legal framework, as agreed last November.
He added that Yemen is facing enormous security challenges, a major of which being Al-Qaeda, which made strategic gains during the last political crisis in the country. The UN envoy said in a closed session to the UN Security Council in New York that Yemen should address the economical and political problems during the transition to democracy, as well as the preparation for general elections in two years’ time. He added that there is a new debate in Yemen focusing on the national reconciliation process, as Yemenis are now looking into how to move forward and deal with the issues of the past.