Hope as Yemen peace talks get under way

Talks between Yemen’s government and rebels, locked in a devastating war for nearly four years, opened on Thursday as tension remained high despite what the UN envoy called a critical opportunity.

Yemen’s warring sides agreed to free thousands of prisoners on Wednesday, in what a UN mediator called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in years to end a war that has pushed millions of people to the verge of starvation.

UN mediator Martin Griffiths said just getting the warring sides to the table was an important milestone.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and spawned what the UN calls the world’s direst humanitarian crisis, since a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in 2015 to restore a government ousted by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. –