FollowYemen President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned abruptly on Thursday night. His entire government then followed suit, leaving the country without a leader or government and possibly opening the door for the Houthi armed rebel group to take control.
An official from the United Nations confirmed that Hadi resigned immediately following a meeting with his political opponents the Houthi that was hosted by Jamal Benomar the envoy from the United Nations to Yemen.
The meeting was held in attempt to resolve the crisis that had gripped Sanaa the capital for a number of days.
Only a day earlier, both sides agreed to end fighting and Benomar’s aides said he hoped the agreement would hold up.
With the Houthi fighters already controlling most of the capital, as well as many parts of northern Yemen, it seemed they would likely take at a minimum de facto control of Yemen’s government.
Hadi’s resignation was announced less than a full hour after Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah the Prime Minister announced on Facebook that he along with the full Cabinet was resigning.
Hadi’s press secretary said he made a formal handing over of his power to Yahya al-Raei the Parliament’s speaker, who by the Constitution must form a caretaker government. However, it was unclear if Raei was going to take charge.
An official who is close to the president said that Hadi believed there was no other choice but to hand in his resignation.
The agreement that was reached Wednesday brought an end temporarily to the fighting within the capital, but fighters from the Houthi did not leave as they had promised from posts around the palace and some officials describes the actions they carried out as being a coup.
However, that was denied by the Houthis and by Thursday, they had withdrawn from the personal residence of Hadi.
On Thursday, only the private guards from Abyan the home province of Hadi could be seen around his home.
Benomar a diplomat from Morocco and the U.N. representative of the secretary general met with the Houthis and Hadi prior to the resignation of Hadi.
