40 hurt in Nobel prize celebration
2011-10-10 11:52
-
Yemen
Foreign Relations and Challenges
Now R2,088.00
buy now
Sana'a - Forty women were wounded in Yemen's
second largest city when regime supporters attacked an all-female street
celebration of the Nobel Peace prize win of Tawakul Karman, medical officials
said on Monday.
The women were attacked on Sunday evening in
the city of Taez as they marched in support of Karman, the first Arab woman to
win the prestigious award.
"We were attacked by regime thugs with
empty bottles and stones," an organiser told AFP on Monday on condition of
anonymity.
Medical officials confirmed the injuries.
The Nobel Prize Committee awarded Karman the
2011 Peace Prize recognising her role in the months of peaceful protests in
Yemen that have called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 33
years in power in Sana'a.
The prize was shared with two Liberian women,
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and activist Leymah Gbowee.
In a separate incident early on Monday, three
people were wounded in clashes between loyalist security forces and armed
tribesmen opposed to Saleh in the central Rawdah neighbourhood of Taez, medical
officials said.
Taez, about 270km southwest of the capital
Sana'a, has been a focal point of tension since protests against Saleh erupted
in January.
- SAPA
