She made the assertions amid reports that the cease-fire had been breached only hours after coming into force, with a Saudi-led coalition carrying out airstrikes in capital Sanaa and fierce clashes between the warring factions in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city.
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The coalition also carried out air raids in Saada province, which is a Houthi stronghold, and the province of Lahj, security sources said.
“If the cease-fire [that came into effect on midnight Friday] is observed throughout Yemen – and in Taiz, Aden and Maarib in particular – and humanitarian aid is delivered to these cities without falling into the hands of the Houthis, it would help relieve the problems faced by Yemeni civilians”, Karman told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
The southern fighters managed to push back the rebels in the coastal Ras Amran area, west of Aden, according to General Fadhel Hasan, a spokesman of the Popular Resistance.
The UN-proposed humanitarian truce technically went into effect at 2059GMT on Friday and is supposed to run until July 17, the last day of the holy month of Ramadan.
But the ceasefire, much needed to rush food supplies to a population threatened by starvation, has been flouted by continued fighting on the ground.
More than a million have fled their homes, and about 21 million, or 80 percent of the country’s population, are in need of immediate assistance, including 13 million unable to meet food needs and 15 million who lack healthcare amid outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab allies joined in a coalition against the Shia Islam-affiliated Houthis in March after the rebels forced Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi from the capital and eventually the country.
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More than a week ago the United Nations declared Yemen a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest on its scale, with almost half the country facing a food crisis.
