Yemen ex-president Hadi dies in Saudi Arabia: source in presidency

RIYADH: Former Yemeni president Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has died in Saudi Arabia, a source in the Yemeni presidency told AFP on Thursday.

Hadi, who was in his eighties, “died in the Saudi capital following a sudden health crisis”, the source said, requesting anonymity.

Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in 2015 when war erupted between the Houthi rebels, who had forced the government from the capital Sanaa, and a Saudi-led coalition.

He handed over his powers – reportedly under Saudi pressure – to the newly announced Presidential Leadership Council in April 2022, as Yemen entered a United Nations-brokered ceasefire.

Yemen remains divided between the Houthi-controlled north and the south, which is government-run but includes a patchwork of factions.

Although the ceasefire is largely holding, the impoverished country is still in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis.

Missile fired from Yemen as Israel and US target Iran

Hadi assumed office in 2012 after a long stint as vice president to Ali Abdullah Saleh, who reluctantly ended his 33 years in power during Arab Spring protests.

Hadi, a career military officer, was waved through as the sole candidate in an election in which he won 99.8 percent of the vote.

After the Houthis overran the capital in 2014, they placed Hadi under house arrest in early 2015, but he escaped in February that year.

In 2022, he announced he was transferring his powers to the eight-member Presidential Leadership Council, headed by Rashad al-Alimi.

Born in 1945, the discreet Hadi graduated from a military officers’ school in 1964.

He completed military training in Britain, followed by specialised instruction in armoured weapons in Egypt until 1970.

He allied himself with Saleh before the unification of North Yemen and communist South Yemen in 1990, and was appointed defence minister in 1994, when Saleh crushed a southern secession attempt.

Pakistan working on ceasefires for Lebanon as well as Yemen

But despite serving many years as vice president, Hadi never played a top role in politics before taking over Saleh’s powers in June 2011, after Saleh was wounded in an attack on his presidential compound.

A few months later, he helped convince Saleh, confronted with widespread street protests, to resign as part of a transition plan that paved the way for Hadi’s election.

But the would-be consensus figure oversaw a sharp slide into grinding conflict that triggered what the UN described as the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe at the time.

Hadi, who was married with children, wrote several books, including one on the military defence of mountainous areas.