Security officials confirm on Sunday that clashes in the southern city of al-Hawat in Lahj province (near the southern seaport city of Aden) opposing the military and separatists led to the death of one soldier.
At least two other soldiers and two passers-by were also injured and send to the hospital to seek medical attention.
According to eye witnesses and preliminary reports tensions between soldiers posted in al-Hawat and southern separatist militants arose as the formers prevented the closer of a popular marketplace, forcibly removing makeshift barricades.
Separatists, who ever since February stepped up their secession calls by organizing frequent and regular general strikes and demonstrations, have become increasingly more violent in their demands, often clashing with the authorities.
Despite renewed calls for calm and President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi's insistence the southern issue should be debated at the National Dialogue Conference, away from the clashed of weapons, factions within the Southern Secessionist Movement (aka al-Harak) are refusing to cooperate, preferring to continue their popular struggle against Sana'a central government.
On Sunday, former South Yemen President Ali Nasser Mohammed expressed his readiness to collaborate with Yemen transition government and the United Nations as to find a peaceful resolution to the country many crisis.
Former President Mohammed opposed 1994 southern insurrection. He actually urged his supporters to fight alongside then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh to preserve the unity of the new Republic of Yemen.
A prominent political figure, former President Mohammed became a figure of the opposition in 2011 uprising.