Southern Resistance fighters gather on a road leading to Yemen‘s Houthi-held southern province of Abyan.

The UAE’s Ministry of Presidential Affairs has announced a three-day mourning period starting from Saturday in the wake of the death of at least 45 Emirati soldiers in Yemen, according to official news agency WAM.

Flags will be flown at half-mast during the three-day period.

In a statement issued on Friday, the ministry said that UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed al-Nahyan “mourns the death of the brave soldiers who martyred while performing their sacred duty as part of Arab coalition’s forces’ Operation Restoring Hope in order to defend justice and righteousness and to support those who suffer injustice.”

The 45 soldiers were killed in an accidental explosion during operations at an arms depot at a military base in the eastern province of Maarib in central Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia, WAM reported on Friday.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of other Arab states have been fighting since March to restore Yemen’s exiled government and to repel the Iran-allied Houthi militias, who took control of the capital Sanaa in September.

The soldiers died after an accidental explosion at an ammunition store. No further details were available.