Unconditional truce needed in Yemen, says UN envoy
The United Nations (UN)’s new Special Adviser on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, says a ceasefire must unconditionally be enforced in the Arab country, which is being targeted with Saudi military attacks.
The 55-year-old Mauritanian diplomat, who was appointed to the post in late April, landed at the Sana’a International Airport on Tuesday, only hours before a five-day halt to the Saudi military strikes is scheduled to take effect.
He said the truce must be carried out unconditionally, so the UN can deliver humanitarian supplies to all Yemenis across the Arab country, noting that teams from international humanitarian organizations, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), will arrive in Yemen later on Tuesday.
During his stay, the top UN official is scheduled to meet and hold talks with representatives of various political factions in Yemen, and supervise the implementation of the halt to the strikes.
Ahmed underlined that there is no solution for the ongoing crisis in Yemen other than dialogue, calling on all Yemeni parties to sit at the negotiating table and formulate a solution to the conflict.
Earlier on Tuesday, scores of people lost their lives and sustained injuries when Saudi military aircraft struck a number of residential neighborhoods in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, ahead of the scheduled start of a halt to the Saudi strikes set for 11:00 p.m. local time (2000 GMT).
The Saudi warplanes fired missiles into Nagham, Sawan and al-Hafa neighborhoods, leveling a large number of houses to the ground.
Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.
According to the latest UN figures, the Saudi military campaign has so far claimed the lives of over 1,400 people and injured close to 6,000, roughly half of whom have been civilians.
MP/HSN/HJL
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