Gunmen Block Ship from Offloading Fuel in Yemen

Yemeni gunmen entered on Saturday a port in the southern city of Aden and prevented a tanker from offloading a diesel cargo because the importing company is affiliated with the government, a Reuters cameraman reported.

The gunmen belong to the separatist Southern Transitional Council, according to comments made in the port by their leader, who identified himself as Abu Hammam.

He accused the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi of profiteering from the fuel trade by excluding other importers and demanded that another ship be allowed to offload fuel in Aden.

The southern separatists in Yemen pulled out in January of committees implementing a November agreement to end a power struggle in the south with the forces of Hadi.

The conflict weakened a Saudi-led coalition battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that ousted Hadi’s government from the capital, Sanaa, in the north in late 2014.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, editing by Louise Heavens)