Local Editor

Saudi Arabia announced a surprise ’pause’ to its bombing aggression on Yemen, saying that a temporary five-day "humanitarian" ceasefire in Yemen would take effect on Sunday evening, according to the Saudi state news agency SPA, two weeks after ignoring a similar UN initiative.

A statement by the SPA on Saturday said that the "humanitarian" ceasefire would take effect on Sunday evening at 11:59 pm, Yemen’s local time [2100 GMT], and will last for five days.

It said that the ceasefire is meant to allow "humanitarian" and medical aid to be delivered to the Yemeni people.

The statement warned, however, that Saudi Arabia reserves the right to respond to any "military activity or movement" by the Popular Committees allied with the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has not yet made any comment on the announcement.

The ceasefire would come nearly four months after Saudi Arabia started bombarding different areas in Yemen on March 26-- without any authorization from the United Nations [UN]-- and heedless of international calls for the cessation of its deadly airstrikes against the impoverished country. Based on UN figures, over 3,261 people have been killed, 1,670 of whom were civilians in the Saudi onslaught.

Saudi Arabia had repeatedly violated previous UN-brokered ceasefires in Yemen.

Just hours before the latest truce in Yemen announced during the last week of the holy month of Ramadan this month [July], the Saudi-led coalition targeted residential areas across Yemen, killing scores of civilians.

The UN declared a five-day emergency ceasefire on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr [marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan] recently last week, but the Saudi-led coalition kept bombing Yemen even on the Eid day.