Yemeni Cabinet returns to Aden after months in Saudi exile

SANAA — Yemen's Cabinet was back in the country after months spent in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia and was working yesterday out of the southern port city of Aden, a government spokesman said.

The minister's will focus on restoring security and stability to the country, beginning with focusing on security in Aden, Yemen's second-largest city, according to Rajeh Badi, who spoke from Aden.

The ministers and President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had fled Yemen earlier this year in the face of an advance by Shiite rebels knows as Houthis who captured the country's capital, Sanaa, last September.

Hadi remains in Saudi Arabia, said presidential officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Yemen has been torn by a ferocious war pitting the Houthis and forces fighting for former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against Hadi loyalists, as well as southern separatists, local militias and Sunni extremists.

The conflict escalated in March as a Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against the Houthis. With support from the Saudi-led coalition, pro-government forces recently pushed the Houthis out of several key southern areas, including Aden in July.

The Houthis still control Sanaa, and are resisting a push by pro-government forces along several front lines around the country.