SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni authorities deployed security forces and armored vehicles across the port city of Aden Wednesday, as protesters were expected to take to the streets in the latest in a series of protests over hours-long electricity outages caused by a shortage of fuel for power stations.

For several days, hundreds of demonstrators in three central districts of Aden blocked roads and set tires on fire, protesting electricity shortages as temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Monday and Tuesday, security forces moved in to disperse the demonstrations, beating protesters with batons and barricading the entrances of some streets, three witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Aden, home to one million people, is governed by the Southern Transitional Council, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates that controls much of the south in the country fractured by nine years of civil war. The STC is allied to the internationally recognized government fighting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north and center of Yemen.