Local Editor

The United Nations [UN] announced on Thursday that a humanitarian truce will go into force in Yemen at midnight local time on Friday to allow urgently needed aid to reach civilians in the war-torn country.

Since March, a Saudi-led coalition, backed by the United States, has been carrying out airstrikes against Yemen. The airstrikes have not been authorized by the UN. 

The announcement came eight days after the UN declared Yemen a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest on its scale, with nearly half of the country’s regions facing a food crisis.

Reports of Saudi-led airstrikes continued late Thursday in several provinces in Yemen. 

UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said on Thursday that, "It is imperative and urgent that humanitarian aid can reach all vulnerable people of Yemen unimpeded and through an unconditional humanitarian pause".

"Full and unhindered access by humanitarian agencies to all parts of the country, including through sea and airports, should be ensured with a view to reaching people in need, including with essential medicines, vaccinations, food and water", he said. 

The Saudi-led coalition also has imposed a near-complete air and sea blockade in Yemen.

Dujarric said that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the pause will be "fully respected and that there will be no violations" on either side. Ban had repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow badly needed aid to be delivered to civilians suffering from the aerial aggression.

Also, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the second-in-command of Ansarullah group who heads the powerful Revolutionary Council, welcomed the truce, saying he hoped it would translate into the lifting of the blockade. "We hope this truce is the beginning of the end of the Saudi aggression," he said in a statement.

The pause in fighting will go into effect at 23:59 local time [2059 GMT] on Friday until the end of the holy month of Ramadan on July 17.

According to UN records, the Saudi attacks have killed more than 2,600 people and injured at least 11,000 since the military aggression began against Yemen on March 26.

The US-led Saudi military aggression began in an attempt to bring the fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia, back to power, and to weaken the Houthi Ansarullah movement which is currently responding to the Saudi attacks on the country.