Aden // Aden’s oil refinery resumed operations Sunday, more than a year after the armed conflict between Yemeni government forces and Houthi rebels brought work to a halt.
The facility was damaged during months of fighting in 2015 that raged after the Iran-backed rebels and their allies attacked the southern city where President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi had taken refuge, forcing him into exile.
“The refinery has resumed activities after receiving 66,000 tonnes of crude oil” from around one million tonnes stockpiled in the south-eastern province of Hadramawt, said Nasser Al Shaef, an oil industry spokesman.
The refinery’s closure triggered a severe shortage of petroleum products and a blackout in Aden when the power station ran out of fuel.
The situation improved after loyalists backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, which includes the UAE, pushed the rebels out of Aden and four southern provinces late last year, allowing fuel and power generators to be shipped in.
The coalition began a military campaign against the Iran-backed rebels in March 201
At least 15 pro-government Yemeni soldiers were killed in Houthi attacks in the north and in a suspected extremist bombing in Aden on Sunday, military and security sources said.
The rebels and launched twin attacks to try to retake the port of Midi in Hajja province, after loyalists had captured it, military sources said.
“Eleven soldiers were killed in the attacks and 28 others were wounded,” a military official said.
Meanwhile, Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out 15 air strikes against the rebels to stop their advance in the area.
In Aden, a roadside bomb killed four soldiers and wounded one at a checkpoint in the Sheikh Othman district.
More than 6,600 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict since March 2015, the UN says.
*Agence France-Presse
