The southern Yemeni city of Aden has on Sunday witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of Yemen.
According to Aden residents, many young men were seen in the city, the main stronghold of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), wearing the uniform of the American fictional Christmas character Santa Claus.
Local sources said some of the young men had been arrested by Salafist groups controlling parts of the city, while others in several neighbourhoods have reportedly carried out Christian rituals.
This is the first time Aden, or Yemen in general, has witnessed such a phenomenon, leading some to believe that the Saudi-led is trying to create a sort of identity discrepancy in Yemen by introducing Western cultural habits.
The population of Yemen consists for approximately 99.9% out of Muslims, with only about 1,000 Christians living in the entire country, most of whom are refugees or temporary foreign residents and no recorded history of Christmas ever having been commonly celebrated.
