Fear of renewed fighting, hunger as Yemen port troop pull-out stalls
Yemen’s warring parties have failed to pull troops from the main port under a month-old truce, putting the first major diplomatic breakthrough of the four-year war in jeopardy and reviving the threat of an all-out assault that could unleash famine.
The resignation this week of the UN official monitoring the ceasefire, who quit days after his convoy was shot at, has hammered home the potential for the peace deal to collapse. If fighting restarts in earnest around the port of Hodeidah, the main supply route into the country could be cut off, leaving no way to feed millions of people on the verge of starvation.
“These coming weeks are make or break for the conflict. We will either see a restart of the political track, or we will likely see a significant military escalation,” said Adam Baron of the European Council for Foreign Relations.
The truce itself has largely held in the port of Hodeidah since coming into force a month ago, but late on Wednesday clashes at flashpoints on the city’s edges intensified.
And the withdrawal of troops that was meant to take place by 7 January has stalled. Pulling out troops was seen as a pivotal confidence-building measure that would build up the trust needed for political talks.
Without it, UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres acknowledged last week, “lack of trust” had become a “complicating factor” in trying to get the parties to talk.
The war has largely been stalemated for years, with a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states and Yemeni allies unable to dislodge the Iranallied Houthi movement that controls the capital and most major population centres.
Last year the Arab states attempted to capture Hodeidah, hoping to seize control of the country’s main supply route and finally force the Houthis to their knees.
But they failed in two attempts to capture the port, holding off from a fullblown assault that could have caused mass starvation. With the Houthis still in control the city and the Arab forces dug-in on the outskirts, they finally agreed a ceasefire at talks at a castle near Stockholm last month.
The agreement also foresees a political track of talks to end the war. But a lack of progress could test the patience of the United Arab Emirates, which leads military operations on Yemen’s Red Sea coast for the Saudiled coalition.
“People are worried that the war will start again after failure in implementing the deal,” said government employee Abdullah Abdulbari, a 51-year-old resident of Hodeidah. This week’s resignation of the head of the UN mission tasked with overseeing the deal, Patrick Cammaert, came after mediators failed to convene a meeting to discuss the redeployment of forces from Hodeidah.
The Redeployment Coordination Committee had met twice in Houthi-run territory, but attempts to convene a third meeting in areas held by coalition forces failed because the Houthis were unwilling to cross the frontline, said sources.
The Houthis accused Cammaert of bias against them. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-salam said that unless Cammaert’s boss, U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths, dealt with it, “it would be difficult to talk about anything else”.