UN-backed cease-fire goes into effect in Yemen’s Hodeidah

The cease-fire agreement reached between the the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels during the UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden went into effect at midnight local time (2100 GMT) on Monday.

The UN-brokered cease-fire covers the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah along with its seaports which are still controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthis, local officials told Xinhua.

The Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), the joint committee in charge of implementing the Hodeidah agreement, is expected to start its work swiftly to translate the momentum built up in Sweden into achievements on the ground, the statement said.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman of the Houthi group, reaffirmed Houthis’ “commitment to Stockholm’s accord and the cease-fire in Hodeidah.”

Meanwhile, sources told Xinhua that the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has issued direct orders to commanders of the Fourth Regional Military Command and the forces in Hodeidah to stop the fighting and adhere to the cease-fire deal.

The cease-fire deal signed between the two warring rivals last week in Sweden called for full withdrawal of all armed groups from Hodeidah and its strategic seaports.

According to the terms of the deal, the UN will manage the port and supervise the redeployment of neutral forces there to prevent military escalation, while local forces will help support law and order in the city.

On the day before the implementation of Sweden’s cease-fire agreement, the two-warring sides stepped up their military operations and exchanged heavy artillery shelling in Hodeidah’s neighborhoods.

According to eyewitness, the Houthi group started deploying gunmen and transporting dozens of containers to block main roads in the city center and other areas.

Two days ahead of the cease-fire, fierce armed confrontations broke out between the two-warring sides in different areas of Hodeidah, causing casualties.

The Houthis launched a large military campaign and seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014 along with other main provinces, forcing Yemen’s president and his government to flee into the southern port city of Aden.

A Saudi-led Arab military coalition intervened militarily and began pounding the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in March 2015 in response to an official request from the internationally-recognized Yemeni government.

The internal military conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government recently entered its fourth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the country.

The ongoing fighting between the two warring rivals with daily Saudi-led airstrikes plunged the most impoverished Arab country in the Middle East into more chaos and violence.

Three quarters of the population, or more than 22 million people, urgently need some form of humanitarian assistance, including 8.4 million people who struggle to find their next meal.