Over 7,700 people killed in Yemen last year

More than 7,700 people have been killed in Yemen during the last year due to armed clashes in the country, a study conducted by a Yemeni NGO shows.

The figure indicates a threefold rise from the death toll in 2011, when a popular uprising happened against the country's longtime dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the study carried out by Abaad Studies and Research Center, published late .

The research noted that about 5,000 Ansarullah revolutionaries (Houthis) were killed in 2014 while more than 1,200 Yemeni civilians and 1,000 military forces died.It also put the number of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants at about 500.In recent months, Yemen has been grappling with a tough political conflict between the central government and Ansarullah revolutionaries, who played a major role in the ouster of Saleh.In September 2014, the fighters gained control of the capital, Sana’a, following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the former dictator.In the same month, Ansarullah fighters and President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government, which replaced the Saleh administration, inked a UN-backed ceasefire deal that called for the withdrawal of the revolutionaries from the capital once a neutral prime minister was picked.

24 Jan MSM News