Jemen

[…] Marib has Yemen's biggest gas fields, while Shabwa has several oil fields and the country's sole liquefied natural gas terminal.

Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who sought to keep the mission going.

[…] Marib, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, sits at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions and is key to controlling Yemen’s north.

The crisis in Yemen, now in its seventh year of war, continues unabated, with thousands of people displaced and millions “a step away from starvation”, the UN Humanitarian Relief Coordinator said on Wednesday during a high-level side event on the margins of the 76th General Assembly.

The UN Human Rights Office warns civilians in Yemen are increasingly being used as fodder by all warring parties in their quest to gain control of the country, a situation that continues to elude them all after seven years of civil war.

At least 50 rebels and pro-government troops, including a high-ranking officer, have been killed in clashes in Yemen’s central province of Al-Bayda, military sources told AFP on Thursday.

There has been no let-up in more than six years of conflict in Yemen, as a growing “climate of fear” among civilians continues, a panel of UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Wednesday.

Sixty-five Houthi rebels and pro-government forces have been killed in renewed fighting for the strategic Yemeni city of Marib, a military official told AFP on Thursday. … The fighting comes after strikes on Yemen’s largest airbase, in the country’s south, killed at least 30 pro-government fighters on Sunday in the deadliest incident since December.

At least 30 soldiers killed and 60 wounded in rebel attacks on major military base housing Saudi-led forces.

[…] “It is imperative to resume an inclusive, Yemeni-led political process to reach a negotiated solution to the conflict,” said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, referring to a 2015 peace plan, which called for a nationwide ceasefire, the reopening of Sana’a airport, the easing of restrictions on fuel and goods flowing through Hudaydah port, and the resumption of face-to-face political negotiations.