South Yemen Protester Shot Dead by Police

A south Yemen separatist was shot dead Monday when police intervened to disperse protesters observing a day of civil disobedience in the formerly independent region, witnesses and a medic said.

Clashes erupted in Ataq, the main city in Shabwa province, when police opened fire at protesters who tried to block a road, killing one protester and wounding others, witnesses said.

A medical source confirmed the death to AFP.

Confrontations also flared in Aden, the former capital of south Yemen, and Mukalla, the provincial capital of Hadramawt, where riot police opened fire to disperse protests and reopen roads blocked with burning tires and concrete blocks, witnesses said.

Most businesses and schools were shut Monday in response to a call for protests made by the separatist Southern Movement.

A senior separatist figure, Khaled al-Junaidi, was shot dead by security forces earlier this month during a previous day of civil disobedience. 

South Yemen became independent after the end of British colonial rule in 1967, before it joined the north in 1990. 

Since mid-October, the Southern Movement has been staging a sit-in in central Aden to demand secession.