Yemeni police shot dead at least 7 opposition protesters on Tuesday when they opened fire on hundreds of protesters near the government headquarters, a protest organizer said.
“Police fired live rounds at protesters, martyring at least 7 of them and wounding several others,” the organizing committee said.
The activists have been camped out in the capital for weeks in a campaign to bring down the government and reverse unpopular fuel price increases.
In a TV address on Monday, the leader of the Houthi movement Ansar Allah movement, Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said the people in the impoverished country are protesting against the government’s policy of terror and threat.
Al-Houthi said that state corruption has outraged the protesters and that the government of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s policy of terror would make the people even more resolute to address the problem of corruption in Yemen.
He added that Yemenis insist on their demands and seek justice, calling on Sanaa to meet the legitimate demands of the people.
Thousands of Houthis strengthened their positions in Sanaa on August 20 in their efforts to press the Yemeni government to step down. Since then, Houthi demonstrators have been holding daily protests in Sanaa and Saada, with tens of thousands taking part.
As Hadi’s government has offered to reverse a decision to cut fuel subsidies and form a new government in the country, Houthis insist that the government should resign as they accuse it of corruption.
On Sunday, Yemeni police’s special forces killed one protester and injured around 40 others as they attacked them to disperse a Houthi sit-in blocking the road to Sana’a airport.