(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah made a symbolic visit to the devastated port of Aden from Saudi exile yesterday, two weeks after loyalist forces ousted Shia rebels from the city.
Bahah became the highest ranking official to return to the southern city since the government announced its liberation in mid-July.
He was followed by officials whose task will be to restore normality and public services to a city battered by four months of ferocious combat.
Bahah, who is also vice president in Yemen's internationally recognised government, fled into exile with President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and his team in March when the rebels entered Aden. Impoverished Yemen has been rocked by fighting between the Houthi rebels and Hadi loyalists, who have received air support from a Saudi-led Arab coalition for the past four months.
The United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,000 people, half of them civilians, while 80 percent of the 21-million population is in need of aid and protection.
On Monday, a humanitarian pause declared by the coalition went into effect but collapsed the next day. An airport source said Bahah flew in on a Saudi military plane and promised in an arrival statement that "normal life" would return to a
"liberated Aden".
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