Yemen ceasefire fails

12 July 2015

UN-brokered humanitarian ceasefire stalls as fighting continues in key cities

  • Six-day ceasefire meant to allow passage of emergency humanitarian aid
  • Warring factions blame each other for violating truce

A six-day humanitarian ceasefire brokered by the United Nations (UN) between the warring factions in Yemen that started before midnight on Friday expired within a few hours when Saudi-led coalition warplanes targeted rebel positions  in the capital Sanaa yesterday.

The ceasefire was meant to end on 17th July, which coincides with the end of the month-long religious observance of Ramadan, to allow aid organisations to deliver urgently required humanitarian assistance. Eight per cent of Yemen’s 25 million population is believed to be in need of urgent aid.

Violent ground fighting was also reported between Houthi fighters and its  rivals in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city.

Both the coalition forces and the Houthi fighters blamed the other for violating the temporary ceasefire agreement and the resumption of fighting provides clear evidence that neither party trust the other to honor the UN-brokered agreement.

The Saudi-led coalition issued a statement following the incident that it did not receive any request from the legitimate Yemeni government for a cessation of the military operations and did not believe that the Houthi fighters were committed to observe the truce.

The bombing in Sanaa is understood to have been triggered by on-the-ground movement that the Saudi-led coalition suspects to be reinforcements for the rebels provided by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Responding to the bombing in Sanaa, the Houthi rebel fighters were said to have staged a bombing in Aden, also on Saturday.

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