CAIRO (AP) – A tanker carrying badly needed fuel arrived in Yemen’s blockaded port of Hudaydah on Sunday, as a cease-fire meant to stop the Saudi-led war in the country for two months entered its first full day.
The truce agreement, which took effect Saturday evening, allows for shipments of fuel to arrive in Hudaydah and for passenger flights to resume from the airport in the capital of Sana’a.
The agreement comes after a significant escalation in hostilities in recent weeks that saw the Yemeni Army claim several retaliatory attacks across the country’s borders, targeting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Essam al-Motwakel, spokesman for the oil corporation, said the Saudi-led coalition allowed the vessel — carrying mazut, a low-quality fuel oil — into the port at Hudaydah. The port handles about 70% of Yemen’s commercial and humanitarian imports.
He called on UN envoy Hans Grundberg, to work with the coalition and accelerate the arrival of other vessels to ease a longtime fuel crisis in the country.
During the two-month truce, the Saudi-led coalition will allow 18 vessels carrying fuel into the port of Hudaydah, and two commercial flights a week from the Yemeni capital to Jordan and Egypt, according to a copy of the truce obtained by The Associated Press.
Yemen’s armed forces say they are committed to a truce that was recently brokered by the United Nations, as long as the other parties to the conflict respect it too.
“We announce the entry into force of the humanitarian and military truce and our commitment to a comprehensive cessation of military operations as long as the other party adheres to this,” the armed forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree tweeted on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the U.S. and several Western states.
The objective was to bring back to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well short of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.