Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed on Monday following clashes between Saleh loyalists and Iran-aligned Houthi militants, days after their three-year-old alliance collapsed.

Officials of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said he had been killed outside the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The Houthis' Interior Ministry said Saleh was killed by rebels from the Shiite group.

Read more: Yemen: Between conflict and collapse

"The Interior Ministry announces the end of the crisis of militias and the killing of their leader and a number of his criminal supporters," an anchor from Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television said, referring to armed supporters of Saleh. The channel referred to Saleh and those who remained loyal to him as "traitors."

There were conflicting reports as to how the ex-president was killed. According to Houthi media, fighters blew up Saleh's house in Sanaa earlier on Monday, amid aerial attacks by Saudi-led coalition warplanes acting in support of the former president. The rebels reportedly stormed the house and confiscated weapons, before destroying the building.

However, Saleh's party said the ex-president had been killed outside Sanaa.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis War: The 'root cause' of Yemen's disasters The UN has identified conflict as the "root cause" of Yemen's crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Fighting keeps food from the famished The conflict has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching large parts of the civilian population, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." Nearly 3 million children and pregnant or nursing women are acutely malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Displacement: Converging crises More than 3 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts around 250,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Cholera: A deadly epidemic The number of suspected cholera cases has exceeded more than 2 million and least 3,700 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen since October 2019, said the WHO. Although cholera can be easily treated, it can kill within hours when untreated.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Unsuspecting victims of the'war on terror' In Yemen, violence goes beyond civil conflict: It is considered a strategic front in the war on terrorism. The country serves as the operational base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, dubbed the "most dangerous" terrorist group before the rise of the "Islamic State." The US routinely uses drones to target al-Qaida leadership. However, civilians have often been killed in the operations.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Children's fate: Future marred by tragedy In a country paralyzed by conflict, children are one of the most at-risk groups in Yemen. More than 12 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," according to the agency.

Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis Peace: An elusive future Despite several attempts at UN-backed peace talks, the conflict continues to rage on. Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, Houthi rebels have demanded the formation of a unity government in order to move forward on a political solution. A peace deal, however, remains elusive. Author: Lewis Sanders IV



From unification to civil war

Saleh announced the end of his alliance with the Houthis on Saturday. He had jointly ruled the Yemeni capital with the Iran-aligned rebels for three years.

The 75-year-old Saleh had previously ruled Yemen for more than three decades after the country's unification but was toppled in 2012 after popular and political pressure during the so-called Arab Spring.

Read more: Yemen's war explained in 4 key points

In late 2014, Houthis backed by Saleh loyalists captured the capital, prompting Yemen's internationally recognized government led by Hadi to flee to Aden. By March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition had launched a deadly aerial campaign against the rebels.

More than 15,000 people have been killed, roughly half of them civilians, according to the UN.

The devastation has pushed the country to the brink of famine and prompted a cholera epidemic affecting nearly a million people.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Alarming evidence of misery in Yemen This image of 18-year-old Saida Ahmad Baghili, sitting on her bed at Al-Thawra in the Red Sea Port city of Hodeida shows her malnourished, emaciated body. It has come to stand for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Saida smiles - after weeks of treatment Saida was transferred to a hospital in the capital, Sanaa. After weeks of hospital care, she can at least smile, though she can still barely speak and continues to find eating difficult at times. Her father is still worried: "She doesn't eat anything except liquid medical food. She used to drink juice and milk with bananas but now she can't. We don't know when she'll recover."

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition A lifelong condition Doctors believe her condition has damaged her throat. When her family first brought Saida to a hospital, she could barely keep her eyes open or stand. "We admitted Saida to find out the cause of her inability to eat," her doctor said. "Her health issue remains chronic and her bones remain fragile due to stunted growth. In all likelihood, they will never return to normal."

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Finally gaining weight Her father, Ahmed, who is staying nearby to be with his daughter, said his daughter's weight has reached 16 kilograms (35 pounds), five kilos more than when she was first admitted to hospital. He said Saida's situation was alarming before the war, which began in March 2015. Yemen's crisis including widespread hunger was brought on by decades of poverty and internal strife.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Food insecurity About half of Yemen's 28 million people are "food insecure," according to the United Nations, and 7 million of them do not now where they will get their next meal. The US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network, run by the US Agency for International Development, estimated that a quarter of all Yemenis are probably in a food security "emergency" - one stage before "catastrophe" or famine.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Saida out of the hospital The war has pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine and displaced over three million people. Areas worst affected by the conflict are parts of Taiz province and southern coastal areas of the Hodeida province, where Saida is from.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition One reason for undersupply Restrictions imposed on the entry of ships after the start of the war in Yemen had raised insurance premiums and cut the number of vessels entering the port by more than half. About a million tons of food supplies entered through Hodeida in 2015, a third as much as in 2014.

Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition Yemeni women call attention to disaster Yemeni women are holding banners depicting suffering, malnourished children. They protest against a UN roadmap for the Yemen conflict, which is calling for naming a new vice president after the withdrawal of the Houthi rebels from Sanaa. Since the beginning of the war, at least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen. Author: Nadine Berghausen



ls/tj (Reuters, AFP, dpa)