SHAFAQNA- Iqna: According to a number of witnesses, in the past two days, UAE and Sudanese troops retreated from Yemen’s southwestern provinces of Lahj.
According to RT Arabic, a large number of troops left the Al-And Base in the province.
Meanwhile, officials and witnesses said hee United Arab Emirates pulled some of its forces from Yemen’s southern port of Aden on Tuesday.
Two officials told Reuters that an Emirati convoy boarded a military vessel at Buraiqa oil terminal near Aden refinery that had shipped out.
Four employees at the refinery said they saw a large convoy of military vehicles and three buses carrying around 200 troops headed toward the terminal.
Forces loyal to the ex-government of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the UAE-backed separatists are reportedly close to a deal that may help heal a deepening rift between the two sides.
Both the UAE-sponsored separatists and the Saudi-backed pro-Hadi militants serve the Riyadh-led coalition and have been engaged, since 2015, in a bloody war on Yemen aimed at reinstating Hadi and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.
The former president resigned in 2014 and later fled to the Saudi capital.
Ties between the two sides have soured over a number of issues, including what the Yemenis view as Abu Dhabi’s intention to occupy Yemen’s strategic Socotra Island and gain dominance over the major waterways in the region.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies, including the UAE, have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to Hadi.
Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began.
The Saudi-led war has impacted over seven million children in Yemen who now face a serious threat of famine, according to UNICEF figures. Over 6,000 children have either been killed or sustained serious injuries since 2015, UN children’s agency said. The humanitarian situation in the country has also been exacerbated by outbreaks of cholera, polio, and measles.
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