[سفيان]

80 southern separatists held in Yemen Reuters/Aden
Yemen has arrested some 80 suspected separatists after army positions in south Yemen came under fire and shops owned by northerners were burned, an official and southern residents said yesterday. The sweeps carried out over three days followed a week of unrest in which separatists tried to block a main road linking the southern province of Lahj to the main southern city of Aden, the official said.
“These people were behind acts of strife and the burning of shops in the city of Al Houta in Lahj province,” said a government official, adding that the suspects would be referred for trial.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is battling a Shia insurgency in the north as well as a resurgent Al Qaeda, whose local arm claimed responsibility for a failed December bomb attack on a US-bound plane as it approached Detroit.
Longstanding separatist sentiment in south Yemen has continued to simmer. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh urged Yemenis last week not to listen to secessionist calls, which he said amounted to treason.
Meanwhile, a report by the local SEYAJ children’s rights organisation and the UN Children’s Fund said yesterday that 187 have been killed since August in the conflict in north Yemen, on Monday. The report also accused both north Yemen Shia rebels and a pro-government militia of using child soldiers.
About 71% of the 187 were killed in the fighting, while the remainder died from lack of food or medical services, the report said.
A survey of areas in Saada and Amran found 73,926 displaced children present in the two provinces - 37,387 boys and 36,539 girls, the report said.
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