ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, the internationally recognized president of Yemen who led a fractured government mostly from exile for eight years as the country descended into civil war and famine before stepping down in 2022, died Thursday. He was 80.
State-run Yemeni TV said that he died at his residence in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, but gave no other details.
Rashad al-Alimi, the head of the Presidential Leadership Council — the leadership body of Yemen’s internationally recognized government — said Hadi believed in the Yemeni people’s “right to a just state, freedom and human dignity.”
“He led the battle to defend the republican system,” al-Alimi said on X.
The government announced three days of mourning, during which flags will be flown at half-staff.
Hadi’s presidency
Hadi became president in 2012 after the resignation of longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh during the Arab Spring uprisings. Backed by the United States and Gulf states, Hadi emerged as a compromise candidate in a one-person election meant to guide Yemen through a political transition.
But his presidency soon got bogged down in unrest.
During his first years in office, Hadi tried to implement wide-reaching reforms, including the unification of the country’s various armed factions.
His opponents accused him of favoring the country’s eastern oil-rich provinces at the expense of the mountainous heartlands dominated by Houthis, the Iran-aligned movement.
Another challenge came from al-Qaida in t …