Airstrikes, fighting said to halt minutes before Yemen truce

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are demanding that the Houthis pull back from territory seized in their offensive and that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi be restored to power.

In this file picture a Houthi militant stands on the rubble of the house of Brigadier Fouad al-Emad, an army commander loyal to the Houthis, after Saudi-led air strikes destroyed it in Sanaa, Yemen.

The United States, which has lent logistical support to the Saudi coalition, has in recent weeks privately pressured Riyadh to cut down on the civilian toll of their strikes.

The dominant Houthis shelled residential areas in the southern port of Aden overnight and pushed further into Yemen’s eastern Hadramawt desert, the centre of the country’s oil resources, fighting tribal militiamen, a local official said.

Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said he did not expect the truce to be successful in a televised speech on Friday. A Houthi-run media agency has reported news of a humanitarian cease-fire between Saudi-led forces and Houthi rebels, the first since fighting erupted in September past year.

The United Nations Security Council welcomed the announcement of the humanitarian pause and urged all parties “to exercise restraint in cases of isolated violations and to avoid escalation”.

The office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it has received assurances from both sides and from other warring parties that they will not break the ceasefire.

Relief agencies say the fighting and a near-blockade imposed by an alliance of Arab states, aimed at stopping weapons deliveries to the Houthis, have caused a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, with over 80 percent of its 25 million people now needing some form of emergency aid.

“If they don’t do that more children are likely to die from malnutrition and preventable diseases”, said Julien Harneis, the Unicef representative in Yemen.

The involved parties are expected to allow aid to reach civilians facing serious food, water and medicine shortage.

The human rights minister in Hadi’s exiled government, Ezzedine al-Asbahi, cast doubt over the rebels’ commitment to the truce.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Assiri said the bloc was “not concerned with this truce because it does not provide a commitment from the Houthi militia”. “The Secretary-General firmly believes that the only sustainable solution to the conflict in Yemen is through peaceful and all-inclusive political dialogue and negotiations”.

“There have been numerous air strikes in numerous provinces”.

On Thursday night, an airstrike hit a school where people displaced from their homes had sought refuge in the southern province of Lahij, killing nine and wounding 14, according to Health Ministry officials in the capital.