At least four people were killed and 40 wounded in south Yemen on Thursday, February 21 when security forces opened fire to disperse a protest by secessionist activists in the port city of Aden, medical sources and witnesses said, according to Reuters.

Witnesses said the security forces shot at dozens of separatists as they staged a demonstration against President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on the anniversary of his election.

A local security official said one person had died, without elaborating. Witnesses and medical sources gave a different account, saying four people were killed, all men.

Spokesmen for the security services and the government were not immediately available to comment.

Hadi was appointed in February 2012 after popular protests forced his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down under a deal brokered by Yemen's rich Gulf neighbors.

The protests left the Arab world's poorest country in a state of turmoil, emboldening one of al Qaeda's most active wings, Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and reviving separatist sentiment in the south.