Yemen Suffers Power Vacuum After President, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi Resigned

 
Yemen plunged deeper into political limbo on Friday after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned in exasperation at a Houthi rebel takeover of the country, a move that seems to have catched the Iran-backed group off balance. Reuters report:

Hadi, a former general, blamed the Houthis’ control of the capital Sanaa for impeding his attempt to steer Yemen toward stability after years of secessionist and tribal unrest, deepening poverty and U.S. drone strikes on Islamist militants.

His resignation on Thursday startled the Arabian Peninsula country of 25 million, where the Shi’ite Muslim Houthis emerged as the dominant faction by seizing Sanaa in September and dictating terms to a humiliated Hadi, whom they had held as a virtual prisoner at his home residence clashes with security guards this week.
Chanting “we are the revolution”, a small group of activists gathered at Change Square, the focus of 2011 pro-democracy protests which forced long-ruling President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down under a Gulf power transfer deal.
“We’re here in rejection of the events that are happening. We came out to build a state and our demand is still to have a state,” said activist Farida al-Yareemi. “We went out against Ali Abdullah Saleh and he had all the weapons.”

SOURCE: BBC