Governor Ahmed Lamlas and Salem al-Socotri, a government minister, both survived the blast which went off as their convoy passed, the sources said.

“A car bomb on Al-Mualla Street exploded while the convoy of officials was passing,” a Yemeni security source told AFP, adding that the victims were in the convoy.

The central government relocated to Aden from the capital Sanaa in 2014, forced out by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to fight Saudi-backed Yemeni government loyalists in a grinding civil war.

Southern Yemen has separately been beset by periodic tensions between that internationally recognised government and southern separatists in recent years, including sporadic armed clashes.

In December 2020, officials from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) were integrated into the cabinet in an uneasy power-sharing agreement.

Lamlas and Socotri are both STC personnel.

The STC has sought to restore the independence of South Yemen, a then country which was integrated into the north in 1990.

The central government and the separatists are, despite their own differences, aligned against the Houthis.

Yemen is also home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which launches periodic attacks against fighters aligned with the country’s authorities.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen’s main conflict, dubbed the world’s worst humanitarian disaster by the UN.