After at least 41 protesters, including a child, were killed and over 200 people were injured following firing by policemen in plainclothes on tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators outside Sana’a University in Yemen Friday, President Ali Abdullah Saleh Friday declared a state of emergency in the country.
The declaration of emergency came after Saleh’s meeting with the country’s higher National Defense Council, where the president expressed his deep regret over the shooting on the protesters after Friday prayers, an official of the defence ministry told Xinhua.
Tens of thousands of government supporters staged mass demonstrations in downtown Sana’a and the provinces of Dhamar and Taiz.
Ali al-Fakih, one of the sit-in organisers, told Xinhua that the police snipers in plainclothes also opened fire on army soldiers who were deployed to protect the protesters, killing Colonel Ali Hassan al-Shamiry.
“Men in plainclothes poured a large quantity of petrol in the south area of the sit-in square outside Sana’a University and set it ablaze, just minutes before around 200,000 protesters finished their Friday prayers,” al-Fakih said.
“Black smoke rose over the area as about 10 police snipers on the rooftop of a commercial building fired live ammunition on the protesters, killing at least 30 and injured more than 200,” said al-Fakih citing latest statistics of the doctors.
One of the witnesses, Twific al-Yaziday,who was at the hospital outside Sana’a University, said a child was killed by a gunshot in the head, adding that more than 20 other people were in critical condition due to wounds in the head, neck and chest.
As many as 34 protesters were confirmed dead in the makeshift hospital in the sit-in square in Sana’a and another seven died in the Technology and Science Hospital, five kilometres east of the protest sit-in.
More security and military forces backed by armoured vehicles were deployed around the sit-in near Sana’a University and around a sit-in in Taiz province, 200 km south of Sana’a, where around 300, 000 protesters have been camping for since three weeks, he said.
Yemen has witnessed escalating protests across the country since mid-February, demanding an end to President Saleh’s 33-year rule.
Mohamed al-Sabri, a spokesman of the opposition coalition, told Xinhua that “after Friday’s massacre, there will be definitely no future conciliation talks with President Saleh.”
Saleh had pledged earlier neither to seek another term nor to pass power to his son, promising to prepare transferring power to the parliament by the end of this year and calling on the opposition to resume dialogue.