Yemen’s Houthi-run administration welcomed a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Wednesday intended to allow aid to reach areas cut off by months of fighting and in dire humanitarian need.
In its first statement on the truce, a governing council composed of the Houthi Ansarullah movement and powerful local allies demanded a Saudi-backed Arab coalition end military attacks and lift curbs on air, sea and land transport.
A ceasefire between warring factions will begin at 23:59 local time on Wednesday, the United Nations said on Monday, raising hopes of an end to a war that has killed thousands of civilians and left people starving.
The council announced its "positive engagement" with the ceasefire plan, and added Yemen needed an immediate, lasting and comprehensive truce without conditions, including what it called an end to the blockade on the Yemeni people.
Aid agencies may try during the ceasefire to reach families trapped in towns and villages where fighting and coalition-imposed travel curbs have left people short of food and in need of vital medical supplies.
"Hopefully this nationwide cessation will provide humanitarian agencies and organizations the opportunity to respond in areas that have been cut off or are hard to reach in all of Yemen," Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N.’s Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator, told Reuters.
McGoldrick said he hoped the cessation of hostilities would be extended and would herald a resumption of peace talks that collapsed in August.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the truce, announced by U.N. Yemen special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, required all parties to halt military activities and help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
"We reiterate the Special Envoy’s request to allow ’free and unhindered access for humanitarian supplies," Kerry said.
Saudi Arabia and several Gulf Arab allies have carried out air strikes and deployed troops in Yemen in support of the regime of fugitive former President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabia began its deadly campaign against Yemen in late March 2015. The strikes were meant to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
About 10,000 people have been killed and over 16,000 injured since Riyadh launched the airstrikes.
The 19-month conflict has also exacerbated Yemen’s already urgent humanitarian needs by increasing levels of malnutrition and recruitment of child soldiers and damaging schools and infrastructure.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
