Yemen's president visits Abyan to inspect damage

Yemen on Sunday saw a second day of violence in the southern region. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the clashes that broke out in the south between security forces and armed separatist protesters. United Nations has meanwhile arrived in the south's largest city, Aden, to investigate a cargo of advanced weapons and explosives that Yemeni authorities seized in late January on a vessel coming from Iran. The ship was within Yemeni maritime borders at the time. Local sources in Hadhramaut have reported that violence continues in various parts of the province. In the coast town of al-Makla, clashes resumed between security forces and armed pro-secessionist followers of former South Yemen president Ali Salim al-Beidh, who is accused of receiving Iranian backing. Sources said Southern Hirak separatists blocked roads with stones and burning tyres, forcing police to use teargas and fire gunshots into the air to disperse the protesters who responded with gunfire. No deaths have been recorded. The Hadhramaut areas of al-Shahr, Saioun and Ghil Bawzir also saw similar violence while President Hadi was forced to depart the capital Sanaa late Saturday evening and head to Aden to inspect the violence that has been raging over the past two days, leaving policemen and separatist protestors dead and injured. Al-Beidh lives in exile and has refused to take part in the country's National Dialogue Conference on March 18, demanding secession for South Yemen. Sources close to Hadi told Arabstoday that the President ordered Yemen's chief prosecutor to launch an "immediate and transparent" investigation into the violence which erupted Thursday. He is also said to have been in contact with Hirak leaders who reside in Yemen to urge calm and to try and persuade them to take part in the National Dialogue Conference, a key part of the political transition agreed upon when former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was faced with a wave of protests in 2011. Hadi also Sunday inspected Abyan province, which is adjacent to Aden, and where he was born to inspect the damage left by the fighting between the army and al-Qaeda militants around the province's cities before the army successfully expelled the operatives in mid-2012. Yemen's state news agency reported Hadi as saying Saturday that work is ongoing to "reconstruct and revive" Abyan areas damaged by the conflict with "terrorist groups." Yemen lodged a formal request before the UN Security Council's' Iran Sanctions Committee demanding an investigation into accusations that Tehran has been meddling in Yemeni internal affairs by financing and arming southern separatists. Iran has repeatedly denied the accusations, demanding that Sanaa produce evidence supporting the charges. Katyusha and Strela missiles, explosive belts, ammunition, surveillance and gunfire detection systems, remote controls, detonators and other military equipment. The state news agency reported the head of the mission as saying that the UN team's mission is help Yemen investigate the cargo and learn the purpose behind it and to whom it was shipped. The vessel's eight-man crew will be questioned by the UN team which will also collect information on the case and file a report to the Security Council.