Aden---Yemen's Western-backed resigned president fled south on Saturday after weeks under house arrest by Shiite militia, in a surprise move that has stalled UN-sponsored talks to fill the political vacuum.
Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi arrived in the main southern city of Aden, where his supporters have refused to recognise the authority of the presidential council installed by the Huthi militia to replace him, an aide told AFP.
The aide said that presidential guards managed to sneak Hadi out of his residence in the capital, insisting that the departure was not negotiated with the Huthis.
There were conflicting reports on Hadi's intention to address the nation within 48 hours.
His aide said Hadi will call on parliament to meet in Aden, as powerful tribes in the provinces of Marib, Jawaf and Baida urged him to declare Sanaa an "occupied city", a tribal source said.
He said Hadi "remains the legitimate president and that he resigned under pressure from Huthis".
But Aden Mayor Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, who is close to Hadi and met him on arrival, told AFP the president does not intend to make a speech, adding that he is "sticking to his resignation".
Hadi's resignation did not receive the parliamentary approval required under the constitution before the Huthis unilaterally dissolved all government institutions on February 6.
Hadi travelled overland in a convoy of dozens of vehicles, a top security official in Aden said. He passed through Yemen's third city Taez, which like Aden is outside Huthi control.
- Gunmen 'tricked' -
A source in the presidential force said Huthi gunmen at Hadi's residence were tricked into looting a vehicle carrying arms while Hadi was sneaked out of a back gate.
The aide insisted that Hadi left "without an arrangement or even informing any of the political parties".
The security official in Aden told AFP that Hadi was staying in a presidential residence in the port city's Khormaksar diplomatic district.
The Huthi militiamen, whose power base is in Yemen's mainly Shiite northern highlands, overran Sanaa unopposed in September.
Last month, they seized the presidential palace and besieged Hadi's residence, prompting him to offer to resign.
The Huthis have pushed their advance south and west of Sanaa into mainly Sunni areas, where they have met with fierce resistance from tribesmen and Al-Qaeda militants.
But Taez and some other parts of the north, and all of the south, remain beyond the militia's control.
Hadi is a southerner, although he spent nearly three decades in the north, serving as defence minister and vice president before becoming president in 2012 when veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power by a bloody year-long uprising.
Hadi has always defended the 1990 union of the north with the formerly independent south where secessionist sentiment has risen sharply.
But most troops and militia in the area have pledged allegiance to Hadi and his supporters hailed his arrival in the former southern capital as a game-changer.
- Power shift -
Nadia Sakkaf, information minister in the government that resigned with Hadi, called for the revision of UN proposals for a political settlement which special envoy Jamal Benomar hailed only on Thursday as a "breakthrough".
"The political situation and the balance of power has changed after the arrival of Hadi in Aden," she wrote on Twitter.
AFP
