UN team meets to discuss ceasefire
Talks come after sporadic clashes test truce
Hodeida ( Yemen): A UN-led team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire met in Yemen’s flashpoint city of Hodeida, after sporadic clashes underscored the fragility of the truce which began last week.
The ceasefire in the rebel-held city, home to a Red Sea port vital for millions at risk of starvation, is part of a peace push seen as the best chance yet of ending four years of conflict.
Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is heading the joint committee, which includes both government officials and Houthi rebels, and chaired its first face-to-face meetings on Wednesday.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has described the meeting as “one of the priorities” of Cammaert’s mission.
A truce in Hodeida and its surroundings went into effect on Dec 18 but has remained shaky, with the two sides accusing each other of violations.
Government forces – backed by a Saudi-led coalition – and the Iran-aligned Houthis exchanged gunfire for a few hours on Wednesday morning, a correspondent said.
An official for the Saudi-led coalition said Tuesday that 10 pro-government troops had been killed since the ceasefire went into force, accusing the Houthis of 183 violations.
“The fact of the matter is, unfortunately, that the Houthis are clearly looking to provoke a response from the coalition and no one is holding them accountable,” he said.
The rebels, in turn, said on the same day that they had recorded at least 31 violations in the past 24 hours by pro-government troops, according to the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.
The war between the Syiah Houthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi escalated in 2015, when he fled into exile and the Saudi-led military coalition intervened.
Since then, the war has killed some 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the real death toll could be five times as high.