Southern separatist killed, four wounded in Yemen

July 11, 2012

(AFP)

ADEN — A separatist from Yemen's southern movement was killed and four other people were wounded, including two women, in clashes with police in the port city of Aden on Wednesday, a local activist said.

"The police came into the Mansoura district and opened fire after residents came out to protest the police presence," Nizar al-Saeedi told AFP, adding that "one person was killed and four others were wounded."

On Monday, two protesters were killed and a man was left "clinically dead" during clashes in the same district which for months has been controlled by southern separatists who have their own militia.

Police rarely venture into the area without triggering a reaction, at times violent, from local residents who view them as an extension of the central government in Sanaa from which they want to separate.

On June 15, police forcibly reopened the main entrance into the district, blocked off by the local militia since 2011, and dismantled a year-old separatist protest camp, sparking fierce clashes.

At least eight people were wounded, including six soldiers.

Yemen's southern separatists have for decades complained of marginalisation by Sanaa. Though the movement remains fractured, it demands autonomy and in some cases independence.

South Yemen was a separate nation before unification with the north in 1990.