Only a day after warring parties agreed to a ceasefire, fighting has broken out near the port city. UN officials have urged the Security Council to act swiftly and send monitors before the situation deteriorates.
Residents said they could hear automatic gunfire on the eastern outskirts of Hodeida, while Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported coalition warplanes had launched strikes north of the city.
But the UN envoy for Yemen on Friday warned that without monitors on the ground, the ceasefire could unravel quickly.
"A robust and competent monitoring regime is not just essential; it is also urgently needed," UN envoy Martin Griffiths told the UN Security Council.
Under the ceasefire agreement, warring parties said they would withdraw forces to "locations outside the city and the ports." For the UN, the urgency can't be understated.
"The process outlined on Hodeida is one that's wracked with potential pitfalls – the key will be ensuring an orderly withdrawal process in preventing spoilers from derailing the process," Adam Baron, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters news agency.
Yemen has struggled to cope with crises prompted by its atrocious civil war, including catastrophic hunger and devastating cholera outbreaks. DW examines the conflict and how it affects the country's civilian population.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
War: The 'root cause' of Yemen's disasters
The UN has identified conflict as the "root cause" of Yemen's crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Fighting keeps food from the famished
The conflict has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching large parts of the civilian population, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." Nearly 3 million children and pregnant or nursing women are acutely malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Displacement: Converging crises
More than 3 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts around 250,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Cholera: A deadly epidemic
The number of suspected cholera cases has exceeded more than 2 million and least 3,700 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen since October 2019, said the WHO. Although cholera can be easily treated, it can kill within hours when untreated.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Unsuspecting victims of the'war on terror'
In Yemen, violence goes beyond civil conflict: It is considered a strategic front in the war on terrorism. The country serves as the operational base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, dubbed the "most dangerous" terrorist group before the rise of the "Islamic State." The US routinely uses drones to target al-Qaida leadership. However, civilians have often been killed in the operations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Y. Arhab
Children's fate: Future marred by tragedy
In a country paralyzed by conflict, children are one of the most at-risk groups in Yemen. More than 12 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," according to the agency.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Peace: An elusive future
Despite several attempts at UN-backed peace talks, the conflict continues to rage on. Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, Houthi rebels have demanded the formation of a unity government in order to move forward on a political solution. A peace deal, however, remains elusive.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
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Disaster
While Yemen struggled with civil unrest during the Arab Spring of 2011, it wasn't until three years later that the situation took a turn for the worse. In 2014, Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and oust President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a brutal military campaign with the aid of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to push out the Shiite fighters and restore the internationally-recognized government.
The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and left millions more on the brink of death from starvation and easily treatable diseases, such as cholera.
Yemen has been dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 8 million people requiring food assistance monthly. Without a political solution, that figure is likely to reach 12 million by next year, the UN said earlier this month.
