After fierce clashes in the Yemeni capital, heavily armed Shiite militiamen seized the presidential palace in Sanaa on Tuesday, January 20, to overthrow President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
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“The Yemeni president is under attack by militiamen who want to overthrow the regime,” Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf said on Twitter, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
The attacks were reported as heavily armed gunmen clashed with troops outside the residence of Hadi, who was reportedly inside receiving visitors at the time of the attack.
The fresh unrest came after the Houthi militiamen surrounded the prime minister’s residence at the end of a bloody day on Monday.
As the Houthis took over the palace, the fate of the country’s elected president, Abed Mansour Hadi, remained unclear.
Hadi is believed to be barricaded in his home in another part of the city, which rebels were shelling with artillery throughout the evening.
Colonel Saleh al-Jamalani, the commander of the Presidential Protection Force that guards the embattled president, has described the events as a “coup”.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the latest clashes, calling for an end to all hostilities and the immediate restoration of order.
“The secretary general is gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Yemen,” the UN press office said in a statement.
“He deplores the heavy fighting between Ansarallah [Houthi] armed groups and Yemeni presidential guards throughout Sanaa.”
Yemen has been wracked by unrest for months, raising fears of a collapse of Hadi’s government, a crucial ally in Washington’s fight against Al-Qaeda.
Houthi militiamen have tightened their grip on Sanaa since overrunning it unopposed months ago.
Last September, Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels signed an agreement with other political parties to form a more inclusive government after they advanced on major state institutions in the capital Sanaa.
The accord aims to address a decade-old Shi'ite Houthi insurgency and a spate of bloodshed this month that posed a major threat to UN-backed efforts to stabilize the country, a key alley to the US in its so-called war on terror.
Sunnis make up nearly 60 percent of Yemen’s population, while the Shiites account for 40 percent.
The two groups lived peacefully side by side, but political affiliations and regional game plans threw off the balance of the ideological truce, spurring violence.
