The president and cabinet of Yemen had stepped down, officials announced on Thursday.

A government spokesman announced the resignation of Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Mahfoudh Abdullah Bahah and his Cabinet on Thursday night. Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi also quit on the same night.

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The string of resignations followed a temporary peace agreement between the government and Houthi rebels to stop days of conflict.

Rebels have yet to deliver on a promise to free a kidnapped presidential aide, Yemen's Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf said on Thursday. Houthi rebels, who are mostly Shiite Muslims up in arms against the majority Sunni, nabbed the president's Chief of Staff Ahmed bin Mubarak in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, on Saturday.

Mubarak's release is a critical point in the tentative peace deal, besides ways to let Houthis participate more in government, an unidentified Yemeni official said.

But Yemen's information minister doubted the rebels would keep their side of the agreement. She concluded that rebels were merely buying time after she followed up promises to free Mubarak since the beginning.

The peace deal hardly moved forward due to mistrust, both sides admitted on Thursday.

A Yemeni official said the government was still waiting for rebels to free bin Mubarak, which has not happened yet, but they do acknowledge that rebels have taken out some ground forces.

A Houthi official said rebels were waiting to see how serious President Hadi was about the peace agreement and they were deploying a fifths of their armed forces in the presidential palace and other important buildings as a guarantee.

The current power vacuum has led many to worry that the situation could help terrorist groups grow in numbers and power.

Under the tentative peace deal, rebels pledged to take their forces from key institutions if officials agree to changing the country's constitution, according to a Yemeni official. The government was accepted to approve changes in the new constitution draft that lead to more political power for the Houthis.