HUNDREDS of Sudanese troops arrived in the southern Yemen port of Aden on Saturday in response to the Houthi rebels’ capture of the central Bayda province.

In a major escalation of the war in Yemen, the Sudanese soldiers were merely the advance guard of a Saudi-led coalition force of 10,000 fighters.

Yemen’s Ansar Allah (the army of God), commonly dubbed the Houthis after the powerful clan that leads it, cleared Bayda of forces loyal to exiled president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Friday.