United Nations: Under mounting pressure from UN officials who warn of the risk of an imminent famine, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government said it expected a pause in the fighting to be declared to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid, a government minister said on Thursday.
Abdullah M Al Saidi, a former ambassador to the United Nations and now a minister in the Yemeni government in exile, said on Thursday afternoon in an interview that a temporary “pause” was likely to be announced as early as Friday.
A Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in late March after the government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi was ousted by advancing Al Houthi militiamen. “I think it’s very likely, but the concern is Al Houthis,” Al Saidi said. “I think we will see a pause.”
But Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, came under some of the heaviest bombing in weeks from the Saudi-led coalition early Friday, residents said. The air strikes, which started shortly after 1am, struck near a mountaintop military base the coalition has bombed on hundreds of occasions over the past three months; another military storage depot, close to a hospital; and a residential area in the north of the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his mediator for the Yemen crisis, Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, have been calling for a humanitarian truce for Ramadan, which began in mid-June.
If a pause is agreed to, it will represent a small but significant victory in the delicate diplomatic efforts to push Saudi Arabia to let up the air strikes long enough for food and fuel to be delivered. Four out of five Yemenis are in need of some sort of humanitarian assistance, and on Wednesday the United Nations officially added the Yemen crisis to its list of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies.
Any pause in the fighting is likely to be fragile. The last time there was a pause, the Al Houthis were accused of exploiting it to reposition themselves. Western allies of Saudi Arabia have been loath to criticise the impact of the Saudi-led military operations, though the United States and Britain have nudged both sides to halt the fighting for the sake of alleviating hunger and disease.
A fuel shortage has crimped the supply of electricity and stopped water pumps from functioning. Dengue fever has spread rapidly. Nearly half the provinces are “one step away” from famine, according to the United Nations.
