Jemen

On the last day of a year that has continued to brutalize the war-torn people of Yemen, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths condemned a “despicable attack” on the country’s newly formed government as they arrived at Aden airport on Wednesday. 

[…] The agreement, first announced in November and revived in July, was brokered by Riyadh to end a standoff between Yemen’s internationally recognised government and southern separatists who are both part of the coalition that has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2015.

Famine-like conditions have re-appeared in parts of Yemen and almost half the population is experiencing high levels of food insecurity, new United Nations data showed on Thursday, with aid agencies warning time is running out to prevent mass starvation.

UN experts called on the Security Council on Thursday, along with the international community at large, to put an end to the “surreal and absurd dimension” of human rights violations engulfing war-torn Yemen, where abuses continue unchecked.  

In 1984 and 1985, about a million people died in Ethiopia in a famine that was widely broadcast on international television. 

The Trump administration is weighing whether to designate the Iran-aligned rebel group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The international community has mediated in the Yemen war since its outbreak. Although the efforts have yielded some results, none have resulted in a lasting de-escalation of violence or real progress toward political solutions. A new international approach could change that. 

Parties to the conflict in Yemen must do more to protect civilians, a senior UN humanitarian official there has said, as the number of civilian deaths has witnessed a sharp rise over the last few weeks in the war-ravaged country. 

[…] More than 600 Houthi rebels and 400 pro-government prisoners are expected to be released over the next two days. The mass prisoner exchange was agreed during UN-supervised talks in Switzerland last month.

An “airlift of hope” agreed by Yemen’s warring parties to return more than 1,000 detainees to their families has been welcomed by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, who has urged both sides to agree to further peace-building measures.