UN Yemen envoy for robust truce monitoring

new york — A robust monitoring regime is urgently needed in Yemen’s port city of Hodeida to oversee compliance by the warring parties with an agreed ceasefire in the region, United Nations Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Friday.

The Iranian-aligned Houthis and the Yemen government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi agreed on Thursday to stop fighting for Houthi-held Hodeida and withdraw their troops.

“A robust and competent monitoring regime is not just essential, it is also urgently needed and both parties have told us they would very much welcome it and indeed depend on it,” Griffiths told the 15-member council, adding that UN officials were already planning for such a deployment. Such a monitoring mission needs the backing of the Security Council in a resolution, diplomats said.

Griffiths said retired Dutch Major General Patrick Cammaert had agreed to lead the monitoring component of the agreement. He said Cammaert could arrive in the region within days.

“Being present in the field soon is an essential part of the confidence that needs to go with the implementation of this agreement,” Griffiths said.

The council was already discussing a resolution to enshrine five requests made by UN aid chief Mark Lowcock — one of which was for a truce around facilities needed for aid and commercial imports — and diplomats said that would now be reworked to endorse the agreement reached in Sweden.

“We hope to be able to work expeditiously with colleagues to bring about a Security Council resolution which will give the firmest possible support to what has been achieved so far,” British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce told the council.