ADEN — Yemeni Vice President Khaled Bahah arrived in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, airport officials said, the most senior official to visit the city since local fighters drove an Iran-backed Houthi group out more than two weeks ago. They said Bahah, who is also the prime minister of the exiled government in Riyadh, arrived aboard a Saudi plane.
Arab television stations said several Cabinet members were also traveling with Bahah, who arrived in Aden around noon local time.
Yemeni fighters, backed by Arab airstrikes from the Saudi-led Arab alliance, drove the Houthis and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of Aden last month in a major setback for the group, which had been on the offensive since last September.
Sources close to Bahah said the vice president wanted to bolster efforts to restore normal life to the city, where President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi had fled after the Houthis seized control of the government in Sanaa earlier this year and confined him to his residence under virtual house arrest.
Yemenis in Aden have been complaining that despite more than two weeks since the government declared Aden "liberated" on July 17, little work has been done to restore public services and remove the debris and rubbish left by months of fighting.
Impoverished Yemen has been rocked by months of fighting between the Houthi rebels and Hadi loyalists. Thousands have been killed and millions are need of aid.
On Monday, a humanitarian pause declared by the coalition went into effect but it collapsed the next day. The interior and transport ministers toured parts of Aden in mid-July during a brief visit to assess the damage from the fighting.
They also looked at ways to fully reopen the ports and airport to allow the delivery of desperately needed relief supplies. — Agencies
