Yemen's President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi returns to Aden from exile Tuesday Sep 22,2015

 

Yemen's President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has returned to the southern city of Aden after six months in exile in Saudi Arabia

Officials at the city's airport confirmed a plane carrying Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi had landed on Tuesday Sep 22,2015

Yemen's President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi fled Aden in late March 2015as Houthi rebels advanced on the city, triggering air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition.

In July 2015, pro-government militiamen and soldiers drove the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of Aden with the help of coalition ground forces.

Since regaining control of Aden, forces loyal to President Hadi and coalition troops have advanced northwards towards Sanaa. However, their offensive is reported to have stalled in Marib province, east of the capital, in recent days

Note

For much of the 20th Century, Yemen existed as two separate countries - the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in the north and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) in the south. In 1990, the countries chose to unify and create the Republic of Yemen. However, southerners soon began complaining of political and economic marginalisation by the government in Sanaa, and fought a civil war in 1994 in a failed attempt to reverse the unification.

Instability and large-scale displacement, as well as weak governance, corruption, resource depletion and poor infrastructure, have hindered development in Yemen

In recent years Yemen has seen violent conflicts largely caused by underlying problems of unequal access to power and resources

Who is fighting whom?

The main fight is between forces loyal to the beleaguered President, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and those allied to Zaidi Shia rebels known as Houthis, who forced Mr Hadi to flee the capital Sanaa

Yemen's security forces have split loyalties, with some units backing Mr Hadi, and others the Houthis and Mr Hadi's predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has remained politically influential. Mr Hadi is also supported in the predominantly Sunni south of the country by militia known as Popular Resistance Committees and local tribesmen.

Both President Hadi and the Houthis are opposed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has staged numerous deadly attacks from its strongholds in the south and south-east.

The conflict between the Houthis and the elected government is also seen as part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen.

Yemen is strategically important because it sits on the Bab al-Mandab strait, a narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis are members of a rebel group, also known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), who adhere to a branch of Shia Islam known as Zaidism. Zaidis make up one-third of the population and ruled North Yemen under a system known as the imamate for almost 1,000 years until 1962.
The Houthis take their name from Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi. He led the group's first uprising in 2004 in an effort to win greater autonomy for their heartland of Saada province, and also to protect Zaidi religious and cultural traditions from perceived encroachment by Sunni Islamists.
After Houthi was killed by the Yemeni military in late 2004, his family took charge and led another five rebellions before a ceasefire was signed with the government in 2010.
In 2011, the Houthis joined the protests against then President Saleh and took advantage of the power vacuum to expand their territorial control in Saada and neighbouring Amran province.
They subsequently participated in a National Dialogue Conference (NDC), which led to President Hadi announcing plans in February 2014 for Yemen to become a federation of six regions.
The Houthis however opposed the plan, which they said would leave them weakened.