UN warns of Yemen collapse
March 23, 2015, 2:24 pm

The UNSC is troubled by reports that Yemen may disintegrate into a bloody civil war like Libya, Syria, or Iraq [Xinhua]

The Security Council called on the group to withdraw from seized government buildings.

The session came following international condemnation of a dual suicide bombing in Yemen which killed nearly 140 people and wounded more than 200 during afternoon prayers in the capital Sana on Friday.

The attacks, claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS), targeted two mosques used by the Shia Muslim Houthis who have in recent weeks seized large swathes of the country.

In January, they seized the presidential palace and forced then leader Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to resign. They have since sought to consolidate their hold on the country.

Hadi, who was placed under house arrest, eventually escaped and fled to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen.

He has now declared Aden the new temporary capital of the entire country.

The fight between the Houthis and the government, which was formed in November 2014, has created a security and political vacuum that has been used by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the more militant ISIL.

ISIL’s claim of responsibility for the mosque bombings indicates that a Shia-Sunni sectarian war is brewing in Yemen.

On Sunday, UN Special Adviser Jamal Benomar told the Security Council that Yemen was on a “rapid downward spiral” due to these tensions.

“Emotions are running extremely high and, unless solutions can be found, the country will fall into further violent confrontations,” Benomar said.

“Events in Yemen are leading the country away from political settlement and to the edge of civil war.”

The Pentagon announced late last week that it was withdrawing some 125 military experts (who had been helping the Yemeni Army combat extremist militants) after Al-Qaeda fighters seized a nearby airbase.

On Monday, Britain announced it was also withdrawing special forces currently in Yemen.

In the meantime, Benomar said that the Yemen crisis could quickly deteriorate into the “protracted conflict in the vein of an Iraq-Libya-Syria combined scenario.”

Source: Agencies