Sana'a, Yemen  - At least one protester was killed and five injured after as police forces dispersed an anti-unity demonstration in southern Yemen on Saturday, witnesses said.

Witnesses told The German Press Agency dpa that police used tear gas and opened fire at protesters after armed men from the crowd fired shots at policemen in the main street of the al-Dhalea city.

Al-Dhalea is around 300 kilometres south of the capital, Sanaa.

They said protesters waved flags of the former southern Yemen and posters of its former leaders, and shouted slogans calling for a separation of the south from the north.

Police officials said two policemen were also wounded in the confrontations.

The protests were organized by the Southern Movement, a group calling for the south of Yemen to secede from the north.

In the neighbouring al-Habileen city, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in a similar protest and they dispersed peacefully after three hours, witnesses said.

Violent anti-government protests have engulfed cities in Yemen's southern provinces in recent months, leaving dozens of casualties among protesters and security forces amid claims by the southerners that the central government exercises discriminatory policies against them.

On Thursday, ten people were killed and 24 others injured during clashes between security forces and supporters of a separatist leader in Zunjubar city, some 420 kilometres south of Sana'a.

The violence highlights the increasing tensions between southern and northern Yemen, nearly 15 years after a civil war in 1994 that ended with the defeat of the southern military by northern forces led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

North and South Yemen were united in 1990. In 1994, southern leaders announced the secession of the south and battled northern forces led by Saleh for 10 weeks in a civil war that ended in their defeat. (dpa)