Sanaa - Ali Rabea
A Yemeni youth set himself alight Tuesday in the capital Sanaa to show solidarity with the dozens of wounded protesters who have been conducting a sit-in outside the Yemeni cabinet building for nearly a week. They were injured in the violence that accompanied the 2011 popular protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. They accuse the government of failing to treat their injuries. Eyewitnesses told Arabstoday that a young man named Muneif al-Zubairi doused himself with petrol and set himself alight outside the cabinet building in protest against the Yemeni revolution's wounded who were demanding treatment for their injuries as others' treatment abroad has been subsidised by the state. The eyewitnesses say that the young man's friends rushed to extinguish the flames that rose from his body and consumed his clothing. His injuries have been described as "serious." Photographs shared by activists on social networking website Facebook show the extent of al-Zubairi's injuries as he lies in his hospital bed. A number of Yemeni human rights activists have joined the sit-in while MP Ahmed Seif Hashed declared a hunger strike until the government meets the wounded protesters' demands.