Aden – President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi appointed Ahmed bin Dagher, former secretary general of the General People’s Congress party to which the president once belonged, as prime minister, according to a decision published on the official sabanew.net website.
He also appointed veteran General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar as vice president, and a presidency source said that Bahah would now serve as a presidential advisor.
Bahah’s replacement comes just a week ahead of a UN-brokered ceasefire planned between Yemen’s warring parties, which is expected to pave the way for peace talks in Kuwait on April 18.
Iran-backed rebels have been in control of capital Sanaa since 2014, forcing the government to declare second-city Aden as temporary capital.
Hadi spoke Sunday of a “lack of a proper government administration of the unlimited support from our brothers in the Arab coalition, notably Saudi Arabia” which is leading an alliance against the rebels.
Hadi has also recently been involving Ahmar more actively in decision-making, appointing him in February as armed forces deputy commander in a bid to rally support from tribes and troops in the rebel-held region around Yemen’s capital.
Ahmar’s troops played a prominent role in the 2011 uprising that ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose loyalists are now allied with the Shiite Huthi rebels in control of Sanaa.
Hadi said his decisions aim to “achieve what our people are aspiring for and to restore the state authority, security and stability.”
The planned truce was only agreed by the warring sides after months of shuttle diplomacy by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Previous UN-sponsored negotiations between the rebels and the government failed to make any headway, and a ceasefire announced for December 15 was repeatedly violated and abandoned by the Saudi-led Arab coalition on January 2.
Source: Extracted from AFP, April 3
