5-day humanitarian cease-fire begins in Yemen to allow aid to reach civilians

Impoverished Yemen has been rocked by months of fighting between Huthi Shiite rebels and Hadi loyalists, supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, leaving thousands dead and many needing urgent aid.

Hassan Boudcenine of Doctors without Borders said: “It just shows what is the trend now of the air strikes from the coalition. Now, it’s a house, it’s a market, it’s anything”.

He included that numerous individuals had families browsing for that al- vacation at the conclusion of Ramadan’s sacred month.

“The battle goes on and the war is not over”, Al Houthi said, adding it would benefit only militant groups Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

It is not clear why the employees’ housing was hit. Yemeni security officials said the closest Houthi outpost to Friday evening’s strike was at least three miles away.

Rebels chant slogans against Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen.

Military sources have said officers from the coalition are in Aden coordinating operations.

“The growing number of civilian casualties…in the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe make a pause and an eventual extension an imperative”, he said in a statement issued late yesterday.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters. Boucenine explained 44 deaths were confirmed by a healthcare facility, although he anticipated the specific cost was dramatically greater.

A ship carrying food aid for Aden’s beleaguered population docked in the southern Yemeni port on Tuesday, the first in months of warfare that have devastated the city, as rival factions fought in the northern suburbs.

Seven pro-Hadi fighters were also killed and 29 others wounded, a medical source said.

The announcement of the ceasefire comes as forces loyal to President Hadi, known as the Popular Resistance, announced on Saturday they had recaptured the city of Sabr in the southern Lahj province from the Houthis and forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The humanitarian truce in Yemen was in doubt on Sunday as Houthi rebels rejected the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Saudi-led coalition.

In a statement released by Saudi state media, the ceasefire begins at one minute before midnight on Sunday, and reportedly follows a request from Yemeni President Abed Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.

The coalition forces reserve the right to respond to violations of the cease-fire. It is intended to help allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to ease the suffering of civilians in the Arab world’s poorest country.