Saudi-led coalition orders halt to Hodeidah offensive
SAUDI ARABIA - The Saudi-led coalition has ordered a halt to its offensive against Houthi rebels occupying Yemen’s main port city, Hodeidah, several officials have said, raising hopes a more lasting ceasefire can be reached to end the fighting.
Saudi and UAE-backed militias have been told to stop the 12-day-old assault until further notice, several Yemeni military officials said on Wednesday, adding that operations would resume if the Houthis attacked coalition positions. The decision appears to have been a response to calls from aid agencies and intense shuttle diplomacy efforts by the UN and the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, ahead of a briefing on the urgent humanitarian situation by UN special envoy Martin Griffiths. The last round of talks in Geneva in September aimed at ending Yemen’s almost four-year-old war were cancelled after three days of waiting for a Houthi delegation, which failed to arrive. Among the stumbling blocks that scuppered the last negotiations was an unmet Houthi demand for the evacuation of wounded fighters to neighboring Oman a request that the coalition has since granted ahead of new talks planned for the end of the month in Sweden.
In the Red Sea city of Hodeidah, violence has subsided to intermittent clashes around sunset over the last two days and a marked drop in coalition bombing although one strike on Wednesday hit a bus carrying fleeing civilians, killing seven and wounding four. “It is quieter now but the fighting continues,” said local Ibrahim Seif. “A new worry is that employees at the port say the Houthis have started mining all of the entrances except one.” Aid agencies fear that damage to Hodeidah’s port through which an estimated 80% of Yemen’s food and aid flows will push 14 million starving Yemenis into famine.
(The Guardian)