Protests gained momentum on Saturday despite concessions made by the government earlier. The Yemeni demonstrators said they would continue protests until their demands are met.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni officials said a presidential delegation offered Shia Houthis a draft proposal on forming a technocrat government, but they had to remove their camps.

There has not yet been any response from Houthis in that regard.

On Wednesday, thousands of Houthi Shias strengthened their positions in the Yemeni capital Sana'a in their efforts to press the Yemeni government to resign. The rally came at the end of a week of massive protest marches that have piled pressure on President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has struggled to keep order in the US-sponsored country which borders major oil exporter and another major US ally Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

NTJ/