May 21, 2009, 10:53 GMT
Sana'a, Yemen - Two people were killed and around 20 others injured in clashes between police and anti-government protesters in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Thursday, medical sources said.
The sources in two Aden hospitals told the German Press Agency dpa that two people died in hospital of bullet injuries, and 19 others were still being treated.
The clashes erupted after anti-riot police tried to disperse demonstrations in the Sheikh Othman neighbourhood called by southern opposition groups to mark the 19th anniversary of the reunification between north and south Yemen.
Witnesses said police opened fire in the air and used tear gas to disperse the protesters.
The confrontations were the latest in a series of violent protests that engulfed cities in three southern provinces in the past few weeks, leaving dozens of wounded protesters and security force members.
Authorities on Wednesday said they would prevent any unauthorized protests during the country's celebrations of the unity day.
Southern separatist groups, that want the south to secede from the north, have been organizing protests since April 28 against what they claim as the central government's discriminatory policies against southerners.
North and South Yemen were united on May 22, 1990. In 1994, southern leaders announced the secession of the south and battled northern forces led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh for 10 weeks in a civil war that ended in their defeat.
The violence highlights the increasing discontent by the southerners and tensions between southern and northern Yemen, 15 years after the civil war.
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