The Yemeni Governor of Al-Mahwit province, Saleh Samei, yesterday criticised the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s role in the war raging in his country, calling on President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi “to end his alliance with Abu Dhabi.”

“President Abd Rabbuh must dispense with the UAE’s services as part of the Saudi-led coalition if they continued their stupid acts,” Samei told Yemen’s Suhail Channel.

Activists say that the UAE has been “deliberately” forming armed militias in Aden, Hadramout and Shabwa provinces, with the aim to carry out military aggressions against Yemeni civilians.

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Samei stressed that those militias were not affiliated to the Yemeni military or government.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa. On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies, including the UAE, launched a military operation in an effort to recoup the Houthis’ military gains.

According to UN officials, more than 50,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 per cent of the country’s population has been displaced.