Hundreds of Yemeni women are protesting in the country’s rebel-held capital over a shortage of gasoline.
It’s a rare sign of dissent against the Shiite Houthi group that overran Sanaa in September.
Protester Onisya Mahfouz says Friday’s protest started at a women-only gas station when a station official told some 500 waiting women there was no fuel. Mahfouz says a fight broke out and a woman slapped the official, who detained her and four others.
The women staged an impromptu sit-in, burning tires and demanding the detained women be released. They accused the rebels of withholding subsidized gasoline.
Fighting in Yemen has intensified since March, when a Saudi-led coalition began an airstrike campaign against the rebels. The fighting has deepened the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.
Source: NY Times/+++
