Senior elected officials in Yemen resigned en masse on Thursday night in protest at a takeover by Houthi rebels of the executive, potentially pushing the country into a new phase of instability.
President Abdu Mansour Hadi, prime minister Khaled Bahah and the entire cabinet quit their posts a day after the Houthis announced the embattled leader had yielded to their demands for a much greater share of power in Yemen’s political affairs.
The move caught the rebels off guard and promptly put on hold their moves to consolidate control of the parliament and state institutions. Houthi supporters in the parliament said the president’s resignation would not be accepted, but it remained unclear whether the national legislature could make such a move in an emergency session called for Friday.
The current parliament was formed after a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which eased veteran autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office after four decades and led to Hadi’s nomination as president.
Since September though, the Houthis, who follow a branch of Shia Islam known as Zaidism, which makes up about 30% of Yemen’s population, had made explicit demands to be closer to political decision making.
An initial push on 19 September saw the rebels take control of much of the capital. That move was secured this week when Houthi gunman sacked the presidential palace, took Hadi’s chief aide hostage, overran military bases and clashed with loyalist guards.
Hadi was besieged in his home for 24 hours, after which he reportedly agreed to the Houthi demands, central to which was backing down on a planned draft constitution, which established six regions in Yemen as part of a federation. Houthis instead wanted two federal regions.
Hadi’s capitulation was meant to lead to the Houthis withdrawing from all state institutions and checkpoints and releasing the presidential aide. But by nightfall on Thursday, that had not happened.
Prime minister Bahah announced his resignation on his Facebook page, lamenting his “very complicated circumstances” in office. He said he had resigned to “avoid being dragged into an abyss of unconstructive policies based on no law”.
He added: “We don’t want to be a party to what is happening or will happen.”
Houthi leaders were refusing to respond to the latest developments. The US State Department said it was analysing events. Washington has allied with Sana’a to fight the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula terror group, which is fighting a long-term insurgency in Yemen that has spread its tentacles to Europe and the US.
