Yemen's prime minister, exiled in Saudi Arabia because of the conflict raging in his country, arrived Sunday on the island of Socotra and announced his government's return.

Socotra, a Yemeni island in the Arabian Sea, has been spared the fighting on the mainland between Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels and pro-government forces.

The official Saba news agency said Khaled Bahah arrived on an inspection visit on Socotra 350 kilometres (210 miles) off the mainland after it was hit by two tropical cyclones a week apart.

Cyclones Chapala and Megh killed 26 people on Socotra and in southeast Yemen.

"This visit is part of the return of the government, with all its members, to carry out their functions inside Yemeni territory," Saba quoted Bahah has saying.

It did not specify where ministers would be based following their hasty departure in early October from Aden, Yemen's second city, after a deadly attack on the provisional seat of government in a hotel.

Security issues forced both Bahah and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to go back to Riyadh after they had returned to Aden in September from six months of exile in Saudi Arabia.

The UN says that some 5,000 people, more than half of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in March in support of Bahah's internationally recognised government.

The World Meteorological Organization has said that tropical cyclones are extremely rare over the Arabian Peninsula, and two back-to-back was "an absolutely extraordinary event".

Cyclones Chapala and Megh killed 26 in Yemen: UN
Sanaa (AFP) Nov 14, 2015 - Two rare cyclones a week apart have killed 26 people and affected thousands of families in the southeast of war-torn Yemen, the United Nations said in a statement Saturday.

Tropical storms Chapala and Megh this month hit the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea some 350 kilometres (210 miles) off the Yemeni mainland, as well as the southeastern provinces of Shabwa and Hadramawt.

"The total number of people killed by the two cyclones (is) still 26 in all affected areas of Yemen," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

More than 6,400 families were affected in Shabwa and Hadramawt, while a further 1,500 families have been displaced after their homes were damaged, OCHA said citing local NGOs.

The World Meteorological Organization has said that tropical cyclones are extremely rare over the Arabian Peninsula, and two back-to-back was "an absolutely extraordinary event".

OCHA said Tuesday that Gulf monarchies had sent at least 17 planeloads of humanitarian aid to Socotra in the wake of the storms.

Yemen has been riven by conflict since Iran-backed rebels seized control of the capital Sanaa in September last year and later advanced into other areas.