A humanitarian truce in Yemen has failed to take hold after Saudi-led warplanes yesterday resumed strikes against Yemen rebels whose clashes with loyalists persisted, military sources said.
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Despite a deadline of midnight on Sunday for the start of a five-day cessation to enable aid agencies to bring in desperately needed supplies. The statement, carried on Saudi state media, said the coalition will cease military operations, but that it will respond should Houthi rebels or their allies conduct any military actions or movements.
The area lies on the road to Lahj, where loyalists have been tightening the noose on rebels, with the aim of recapturing the strategic Al-Anad airbase.
Forces loyal to the pro-Saudi “government-in-exile” led by former Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has expanded its holdings in the key southern port city of Aden today, with reports that they’d seized a few of the surrounding area, backed by Saudi airstrikes.
Fractious Yemen has remained in turmoil since last September, when the Houthis overran Sanaa, where they sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country.
HRW emphasizes that the current Yemeni and Saudi Arabian hostilities should be governed by the rules of war, which explicitly forbid deliberate attacks, as well as reckless endangerment, and that any failure to observe these should be viewed as a war crime and investigated by the country involved.
Last week, coalition aircraft repeatedly struck two compounds housing the families of workers at the Mokha Steam Power Plant, killing 65 civilians, the New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
In confirmation of a continuation of hostilities was also a coalition strike in Jebel al-Zaytoun, in the south, which hit its allied pro-government forces killing 12 and injuring around thirty.
As a result, 90 percent of the imported staple foods eaten in Yemen, including wheat and rice, have not been getting through to people living in regions worst affected by food shortages, such as the Saada governorate in the north of the country.
The UN says the conflict has now claimed upwards of 3,640 people, around half of whom are civilians.
Saudi Arabia’s United Nations ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, told reporters on Tuesday that the agreements were still being completed, with no explanation of the delay. O’Brien said that the UN could potentially help three million people in Yemen if the fighting would stop.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini held talks yesterday in Riyadh with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, and both said they agreed on the need for a political solution in Yemen.
The UAE is participating in Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes in Yemen.
“Five days are not enough to cover the humanitarian needs”, he said.
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Johannes van der Klaauw, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, made an urgent appeal for a pause in the fighting. Later that month, it criticised the naval blockade against Yemen for causing needless suffering among the civilian population.
