Yemeni police wound eight protestors

ADEN - Eight people were wounded in southern Yemen Wednesday as police opened fire after clashing with protestors demonstrating against the rising cost of living, eyewitnesses and a security official said.

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of government-controlled Mukalla, capital of the Hadramawt province, tearing down pictures of officials in a Saudi-led alliance that is fighting alongside the authorities against Huthi rebels, eyewitnesses said.

Police opened fire as protestors clashed with security forces, wounding eight, a security official in Hadramawt said.

Yemenis in Seyoun, the second largest city in Hadramawt, also went on strike in a third day of civil disobedience that has seen shops shuttered and government offices closed temporarily.

Hundreds of residents have been protesting against the rising cost of living in largely government-held southern Yemen since Sunday, prompting the cabinet of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to announce raises for all government employees, contractors and pensioners.

The cabinet did not provide figures or a timeline for the raises.

For more than a year, Yemen's government has been unable to pay salaries as war and poverty push the country to the brink of famine.

The riyal has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government's fight against Yemen's Huthi rebels.

The Saudi-backed government has battled the Huthis, linked to Iran, since 2014 in what is widely seen as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran.

In 2015, the Huthis drove Hadi and his cabinet out of the capital Sanaa and further south, where the government now wields significant clout.

The Yemen conflict has claimed nearly 10,000 lives since 2015, according to the World Health Organization.