Yemen

The United Nations envoy to Yemen said Thursday he was engaged in talks with the country’s warring parties to secure a nationwide ceasefire to help counter the threat of the coronavirus. Martin Griffiths’ office said he is discussing “concrete steps” with the warring sides despite a recent escalation in the long conflict.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi "welcomed" the Saudi-led coalition's decision to support a ceasefire. The ceasefire proposal was a response to a UN call amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Echoing his 23 March appeal to warring parties across the globe for an immediate ceasefire, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on those fighting in Yemen to end hostilities and ramp up efforts to counter a potential outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Huthi offensive threatens to engulf Marib, a province controlled by Yemen’s internationally recognised government and full of internally displaced people. Outside powers should act now to halt the fighting, which could deepen the existing humanitarian crisis and ruin peace efforts elsewhere in the country.

The banning of flights in and out of Yemen to reduce the spread of coronavirus has seen international relief teams scaled back to essential staff only, medical evacuations halted, and a scheme to limit aid fraud using fingerprinting technology likely put on ice. Top priority, life-saving assistance such as food, water, sanitation, and health services will continue, but some less critical UN programmes will be slowed, under a prioritisation scheme called “Programme Criticality”, according to UN officials familiar with the situation.

Yemen is at a “critical juncture”, the UN Special Envoy for the country told the Security Council on Thursday. Speaking via video-link, Martin Griffiths said that the combatants will either move towards de-escalation or greater violence, which would make “the path to the negotiating table more arduous”.

Yemen’s army said it wrested control of several northern towns from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels Monday, a step toward reversing the rebels’ rapid gains in the strategic area.

In a visit to northern Yemen on Saturday, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths repeated his call for an immediate freeze on military activities and for warring parties to work towards a de-escalation in fighting.

The United States will halt humanitarian assistance to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, where a majority of the country’s population lives, if the rebels refuse to remove obstacles to aid distribution. The announcement, made Feb. 25 by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), came amid new evidence that humanitarian assistance is not reaching its intended targets and growing security concerns by the agency and its partners.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have wrested control of a strategic city in the country's north, officials said, in a major blow to the internationally recognised government and the Saudi-led coalition that backs it.