The Houthis and Saudi-backed government have agreed to a cease-fire to coincide with Ramadan. The eight-year war has caused a humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of people have been killed in the war in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab worldImage: Khaled Abdullah/REUTERS
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The two sides in Yemen's ongoing conflict — the Saudi-backed government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels — will put down their weapons for two months, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said on Friday.
The truce will begin Saturday evening, which also marks the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Grundberg said in his statement that "the parties accepted to halt all offensive military air, ground and maritime operations inside Yemen and across its borders."
The war in Yemen grinds on. Many locals are alive thanks to external aid. But now there is a danger that those organizations too will run out of money. A donor conference takes place this week to try to remedy that.
Image: Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
Shortage of aid
The humanitarian crisis in war-torn Yemen is getting worse again. According to the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP), 13 million people there are in danger of starvation. This is due to the ongoing civil war in Yemen and a shortage of humanitarian aid.
Image: Khaled Ziad/AFP/Getty Images
High dependency
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many more people are going hungry. Yemen is one of the most deprived countries, with more than 40% of the population dependent on WFP deliveries.
Image: Khaled Abdullah/REUTERS
Running out of money
"We’re feeding 13 million people out of a nation of 30 million people and we are running out of money," David Beasley, the head of the WFP, told the Associated Press recently. "So, what am I gonna do for the children in Yemen? Steal it from the children in Ethiopia, or Afghanistan, or Nigeria or in Syria? That’s not right," he said.
Image: Giles Clarke/UNOCHA/picture alliance
Incomplete aid packages
At the moment only those who could die of starvation are actually receiving their full ration, said Corinne Fleischer, director of the WFP's program for the Middle East and North Africa. That equals about five million people. And the donations so far only cover 18% of the almost $2 billion (€1.8 billion) that the WFP needs for its work in Yemen.
Image: Mohammed Mohammed/XinHua/dpa/picture alliance
Ukraine war worsens hunger
The Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens to makes things even worse here because the WFP was sourcing around half of its wheat from Ukraine. Even before the war began, prices had risen so much that wheat had to be rationed. The World Bank has also suggested that the Ukraine war will bring about worse famine.
Image: AHMAD AL-BASHA/AFP/Getty Images
Bloody civil war
A bloody civil war, in which external states have got involved, has been ongoing in Yemen for the past seven years. Since 2015, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has fought the Iran-supported Houthi rebels, who now control most of the country. This includes the capital, Sanaa.
Image: imago images/Xinhua
Chaos in Aden
The southern city of Aden has been controlled by separatists since 2020 and has been the base of the internationally recognized government, headed by Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, since the Houthis pushed it out of Sanaa. Terrorist groups are active in Aden — this picture shows the aftermath of an attack that killed eight in 2021.
Image: Wael Qubady/AP Photo/picture alliance
No shelter
The battle for the oil-rich city of Marib was particularly harsh. The city is seen as strategically important and was the last bastion of the officially recognized government in the north. The fighting just goes on here, with the Saudis continually bombing the area. Civilians are forced to keep moving their displaced persons camps because the frontlines keep shifting.
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Hospitals full up
Health care in Yemen is even worse than it was before. The ongoing war as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have only made things more dire in the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula.
Image: Abdulnasser Alseddik/AA/picture alliance
Schools bombed
In a 2021 report, UNICEF said that education has been one of the Yemen war's biggest casualties. More than 2 million school-age girls and boys are not attending classes. That is twice as many children as before the war started. Many schools have been bombed.
Image: Mohammed Al-Wafi /AA/picture alliance
Spiral of misery
Power, clean water, petrol — there's always something missing in Yemen. The queues at petrol stations just keep getting longer. Without more funding for aid, this downward spiral of misery will only continue.
Image: Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
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What did the UN envoy say?
The UN statement said that, as part of the agreement, fuel ships would be allowed to dock at the port city of Hudaydah. The lack of port access had been the reason behind the Houthis' rejection of Riyadh's move for a cease-fire on Wednesday.
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Grundberg said the truce could be extended and urged all parties to seek an end to the war.
"I plan to intensify my work with the parties with the aim to reach a permanent cease-fire, address urgent economic and humanitarian measures, and resume the political process," he said.
"The aim of this truce is to give Yemenis a necessary break from violence, relief from the humanitarian suffering and most importantly hope that an end to this conflict is possible," the UN special envoy added.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the news in a statement, saying: "This initiative is a long-awaited reprieve for the Yemeni people."
"These are important steps, but they are not enough. The ceasefire must be adhered to, and as I have said before, it is imperative that we end this war," he added.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also welcomed the cease-fire, calling it a "window of opportunity to finally secure peace and end the humanitarian suffering."
World's worst humanitarian crisis
The war in Yemen — and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe — began in 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa.
They ousted President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, forcing him into exile. In March 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a campaign to restore Hadi's government to power.
The conflict has been called a proxy war between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia. More than 150,000 people have been killed, including more than 14,500 civilians.
The toll on the Yemeni people has been disastrous, with the UN calling the conflict the globe's worst humanitarian crisis.
