CAIRO (Dispatches) – The UN envoy for Yemen expressed concerns on Wednesday about violations of a cease-fire in the war-wrecked country, urging the warring sides to uphold the first nationwide truce in six years.
Hans Grundberg said that while the truce has led to “significant reduction of violence” in Yemen, there were reports of “some hostile military activities”.
He did not say which side was to blame for the violations, however there have been reports Riyadh and Saudi-backed militant have breached ceasefire multiple times.
“This truce is a step, an important one, but a fragile step, nonetheless,” he said. “We need to make the best possible use of the window this truce gives us to work towards ending the conflict.”
Grundberg told a virtual news conference that the United Nations was working on a coordination mechanism with the warring sides to maintain the truce, which was announced earlier this month. It is supposed to last for two months.
He cautioned that the cease-fire is not being monitored by the UN and that the “responsibility to uphold the truce is squarely with the parties themselves.”
Yemen’s armed forces say they are committed to a truce that was recently brokered by the United Nations with the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which has been attacking the country since 2015, 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.
The two-month-long truce entered into effect on Saturday at 07:00 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) and could be renewed with consent of the concerned parties.
“The aim of this truce is to give Yemenis a necessary break from violence, relief from the humanitarian suffering, and most importantly hope that an end to this conflict is possible,” Grundberg said.
The ceasefire deal stipulates halting offensive military operations, including cross-border attacks, and allowing fuel-laden ships to enter Yemen’s lifeline al-Hudaydah port. It also paves the way for commercial flights in and out of the airport in the capital Sana’a “to predetermined destinations in the region.”
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 the 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.