Reuters AlertNet Lite - Two Yemenis killed, 11 policemen wounded in riot

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Two Yemenis killed, 11 policemen wounded in riot

10 Sep 2007 15:06:04 GMT
Source: Reuters

ADEN, Yemen, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Two Yemenis were killed and 11 policemen were wounded in a riot in the southern town of Daleh on Sunday, the official Saba news agency reported.

Opposition sources said at least two men were killed when the police tried to disperse demonstrators calling for the release of people held in protests against a rise in prices.

Saba said the rioters were "outlaws who gathered in the town of Daleh and started a riot blocking roads and tried to break into shops and government buildings to torch them and loot the property of citizens".

"Some of them used firearms against policemen and shopkeepers ... but security forces controlled the situation and arrested a number of the instegators and perpetrators," Saba quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying.

"Such acts of vandalism will be confronted with resolve," the source added.

Earlier this month two people were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes between police and demonstrators calling on the state to curb a rise in the prices of basic goods.

Yemen, one of the poorest countries outside Africa, has banned demonstrations organised without official permission. The move came after opposition parties staged several protests over a steep increase in the cost of living.

Government officials say the rise is due to a spike in the prices of commodities such as wheat in global markets.

The government has ordered state bodies to import such goods and provide them to citizens at fair prices and ensure that they are not monopolised by local merchants.

Four out of 10 Yemenis live on less than $2 a day, according to Britain's Department for International Development, which says Yemen's oil, its main earnings source, is expected to dry up by 2015.

Yemen's oil production has dropped to around 300,000 barrels per day from around 380,000 bpd at the beginning of the year.

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Last updated:Mon Sep 10 15:06:47 2007