18 people killed as shells fired

Shells fired by Yemen’s dominant Houthi group killed 18 people near the southern port city of Aden early on Wednesday, local officials and witnesses said.

Residents of Aden’s Mansoura district said mortar shells apparently fired indiscriminately by Houthis stationed in a field to the north, killed seven people sheltering at a hotel and 11 more at a market.

The northern Houthi fighters, who have seized large parts of Yemen in recent months, advanced towards Aden in March, prompting exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had taken refuge there, to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Since then Aden has been host to almost daily clashes between the Houthis and local fighters allied with Hadi. Thousands have been killed or wounded.

“What happened yesterday was random shooting on innocents and residents and women and children,” said resident Amin Abdullah.

“These are the acts of cowards,” he added.

One resident in his 30s, Atef al-Somali, was killed while trying to buy food for suhoor — a meal Muslims eat early in the early hours before they resume their dawn-to-dusk fast during the holy month of Ramadan, resident said.

At least 30 other people were wounded in the attack, local officials said.

Houthi officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.

Aden, a city of more than 1 million people, is facing shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies.

Yemen, which has long struggled with poverty and hunger, has descended into a full blown humanitarian crisis since a war erupted between the Houthis and allies of exiled President Hadi, drawing in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.