SANA’A (Dispatches) – The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, has warned that the failure to extend the ceasefire agreement between the Sana’a-based Yemeni government and the Saudi-, UAE-backed militants and mercenaries will lead to a “heightened risk of war”.
Speaking during a Security Council briefing, Grundberg said the truce started to alleviate the suffering of Yemeni men and women and offered a truly historic opportunity to build trust and to work towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Failure to extend the truce beyond 2 October, the day the second extension of the truce ended, caused new uncertainty for the country and a heightened risk of war, he added.
Grundberg stressed that there is still a possibility to reach an agreement on the renewal and expansion of the truce if the parties demonstrate the required leadership, compromise and flexibility, including regular and unhindered flow of fuel to the ports of Hudaydah.
Yemen’s Ansarullah popular resistance movement said the Saudi-led coalition, which has been attacking the country since 2015, is entirely responsible for the failure of a UN-brokered truce between Sana’a and the aggressors.
Spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday, saying the ceasefire ended and was not extended “due to the aggressor countries’ disregard for the humanitarian demands and natural rights of the Yemeni people.”
Meanwhile, ten children with leukemia died after receiving smuggled medicines in a public hospital in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, al-Masirah TV reported Friday, citing a statement by the Houthi-controlled health authorities.
Meanwhile, nine other children are in critical condition after receiving the same smuggled medicines, said the statement released on Thursday night, adding an investigation is underway.
Smuggled medicines are common for hospitals across Yemen, which have been suffering from a shortage of drugs, equipment and funds for years.
More than half of Yemen’s medical facilities have been paralyzed since the Saudi-backed war broke out.
The Saudi kingdom and its allies, most notably the United Arab Emirates, have been waging a war against Yemen since March 2015, trying, in vain, to restore Yemen’s power to its former Riyadh-friendly officials. The military campaign, which has been enjoying unstinting arms, logistical, and political support from the United States, has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and turned the entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
A temporary United Nations-mediated ceasefire took effect between the warring sides in April and has been renewed twice ever since. The truce, however, expired on October 2 amid the invading coalition’s constant violations of the agreement and its refusal to properly lift a siege that it has been enforcing against Yemen simultaneously with the war.
Abdul-Salam also named some of the obstacles that the coalition has been throwing in the way of the truce’s extension.
The coalition, he said, had refused to reopen the Sana’a International Airport and Yemen’s lifeline al-Hudaydah port, and denied the Sana’a government access to the country’s oil and gas wealth so it can pay Yemeni people’s salaries.