Yemen

In a wide-ranging interview for UN News on Wednesday, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s Special Envoy in Yemen, addresses the protracted peace process in the country, and the enormous challenges that still need to be overcome.

Houthi rebels have prevented UN experts from accessing old tanker with more than a million barrels of oil on board that risks a spill larger than the Exxon Valdez.

Fighter jets belonging to a Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched dozens of air raids on several Yemeni provinces, as the kingdom announced the start of a new military operation.

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen announced Monday a ceasefire between the internationally recognized government and southern separatists who have declared self-rule after a series of military gains. … The southern separatists and the government are technically allies in the fight against the Houthi rebels, but the rift between them represents a damaging “war within a war” in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.

Saudi Arabia has proposed a framework to end the latest standoff in southern Yemen between nominal allies under a Saudi-led coalition, three sources said, as violence escalates with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the north of the country.

Aid organizations are making an urgent plea for funding to shore up their operations in war-torn Yemen, saying they have already been forced to stop some of their work even as the coronavirus rips through the country. Some 75% of U.N. programs in Yemen have had to shut their doors or reduce operations.

The United Nations warns COVID-19 could have catastrophic consequences for millions of people in Yemen, and worsen what is already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The UN has pulled out over half its remaining international staff from Yemen’s capital to protect them from the spread of COVID-19, according to several UN sources.

UN Special Envoy for war-weary Yemen, Martin Griffiths, told the Security Council on Thursday, that he had been in intensive negotiations with the warring parties in Yemen over a lasting peace deal, with "significant progress" made, especially towards making the UN's call for a complete silencing of the guns, a reality.

The World Health Organization has suspended its operations in the main Houthi-held areas of Yemen to pressure the rebel group to be more open about suspected coronavirus cases. They include the Yemeni capital of Sana’a and Hodeidah, the country’s main port on the Red Sea.