A two-month truce came into effect late Saturday in Yemen under an agreement wrung by the United Nations from pro-government forces and Houthi rebels engaged in a devastating war for nearly eight years.
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The Houthis, backed by Iran, are facing government forces supported since 2015 by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, including the United Arab Emirates.
In this conflict which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives according to the UN and pushed this poor country in the Arabian Peninsula to the brink of famine, a previous truce agreed in 2016 between belligerents across the country, and others decided unilaterally, had fizzled.
The ceasefire came into effect at 7:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT), on the first day of Ramadan, the month of Muslim fasting, UN envoy Hans Grundberg confirmed in a statement on Saturday evening.
Under this new truce, which can be renewed “with the consent” of the belligerents, “all military air, land and sea offensives must cease this evening”, he specified.
The announcement is the culmination of efforts by Mr Grundberg, who has been trying for months to reach a truce and relaunch negotiations for a settlement in Yemen where rival regional powers Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran , are engaged in a proxy war.
On Thursday, the UN envoy spoke separately with representatives of the Houthis in Oman and in recent days with those of the Yemeni government and the Saudi kingdom in Riyadh.
The Riyadh-led coalition said it “supports the Yemeni government’s agreement for a truce,” as well as “UN efforts to consolidate it.”
“De-escalation”
Efforts for a truce have intensified after an intensification of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
On March 25, they launched 16 attacks against targets in the kingdom, one of which caused a huge fire at an oil site in Jeddah (west) near the Formula 1 circuit which hosted the Grand Prix. These attacks caused no casualties.
In retaliation, Saudi aircraft bombarded areas controlled by the Houthis.
This new truce allows the entry of 18 oil tankers in the ports of the strategic region of Hodeida (west) and the access of two commercial flights to the airport of the capital Sanaa.
The coalition controls Yemen’s air and sea space and only UN flights are allowed to land in Sanaa, a “blockade” denounced by the Houthis.
Sanaa and the ports of Hodeida are in the hands of the Houthis. Ports are essential for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“The success of this initiative will depend on the will of the warring parties to the conflict to enforce the truce and (to apply) the planned humanitarian measures,” according to the UN envoy.
“I hope that the goodwill displayed publicly by the parties will translate into a long-term de-escalation in the inflammatory and hate speech reported by the media,” he said.
“Optimistic”
“The war turned all my dreams into nightmares,” but “this time I’m optimistic. This truce is not like the previous ones, and the fact that it coincides with Ramadan gives us a lot of hope,” Asma Zayed, a student in Hodeida, told AFP.
In this context of de-escalation, the belligerents have “agreed to meet under the aegis (of the UN) to open roads in Taiz and other regions of Yemen in order to allow civilians to move freely”, according to Mr Grundberg.
The city of Taiz, in the southwest of the country, is under government control, but besieged since 2015 by insurgents.
After seven years of intervention, the Riyadh coalition has failed to dislodge the rebels from the conquered regions, particularly in northern Yemen.
The United States welcomed the new truce while stressing the need to reach “a compromise that can bring lasting peace”.
For its part, France considered that it was “a major step forward which should make it possible to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people and which brings hope”.
For his part, the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell urged the belligerents to “respect the truce with a view to achieving a lasting ceasefire”.