Yemen’s internationally recognised government has appointed three new ministers in a cabinet reshuffle, as fighting against the Houthis intensifies and the Iran-backed rebels advance towards the government’s temporary capital, Aden.
Salem Al Awlaki was appointed minister of information, replacing Moammar Eryani, who had held the post since 2016. Mr Eryani said on X that he would become an ambassador at the Foreign Ministry under a decree issued by Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad Al Alimi.
Judge Akram Naseeb Ahmed Al Amiri was appointed minister of civil service and insurance, while Ahmed Al Awlaki was named minister of local administration, state news agency Saba reported.
The reshuffle comes after Houthis advanced to within 80km of Aden, according to four military sources cited by Reuters on Monday. The advance brings the group closer to the city than at any point since the early months of the war in 2015, when Houthi fighters briefly entered Aden before being driven out.
The latest push threatens strategic positions along the main road linking Aden with the besieged city of Taiz. It follows a broader offensive that began in September, when Houthi forces moved down Yemen’s Red Sea coast and seized territory near the Bab Al Mandeb strait, a major international shipping route and a key passage for Saudi oil exports to Asia.
The military sources said the advance could allow the Houthis to outflank government forces along the mountain range overlooking the strait. Government troops had driven Houthi fighters from the area only weeks earlier.
Hundreds of thousands displaced
The renewed fighting has raised fears of a further deterioration in Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Monday that nearly 300,000 people had been displaced since August, while access restrictions and shortages were worsening conditions in Taiz, a city of around one million people.
Roads into Taiz have been closed and supplies are running out, Mr Fletcher said. Water production has halved, food prices have risen by at least 50 per cent, and hospitals are running short of fuel and medicines.
Mr Fletcher said he had discussed the crisis with Yemen’s Foreign Minister, Afrah Al Zouba, and that the UN was working to secure full humanitarian access. Aid partners had reached nearly 260,000 displaced people, but needs were outpacing the response, he said. Food and medicine were ready to be delivered.
“Open the roads and let them through. Civilians cannot be held hostage by the fighting,” Mr Fletcher said.
He also condemned the death of UN Human Rights Office colleague Mohammad El Shami in Houthi custody, saying 70 UN staff members and dozens of other humanitarian workers remained detained. “They are not bargaining chips. Release them,” he said.
The latest escalation has shattered a 2022 UN-brokered truce that had largely halted major attacks in a war that began in 2014, when the Houthis drove the government from Sanaa. The fighting has also opened a volatile front in the wider regional conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran.
