Scores killed as UN peace envoy lands in Sanaa

Video: At least 44 people were killed across clashes in Yemen as the UN peace envoy arrived in the capital to meet with Houthi rebels on Wednesday.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

14 July, 2016

Fighting continues in Yemen

At least 44 people were killed in a 24-hour period after clashes erupted in Yemen, military officials said, as the UN's peace envoy arrived in the capital to meet rebels.

Eight loyalists and 17 rebels were killed in the battle, military spokesman Abdullah al-Shandaqi told AFP.

Fighting between government forces and rebels raged across Yemen on Tuesday and Wednesday when Hadi's troops seized a strategic mountain base in Nahm.

Meanwhile, four soldiers and four rebels also died during clashes in Marib when when pro-government forces resisted a Houthi-attempt to capture a hill overlooking their base.

In Jawf, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes killed seven Houthis when it struck a convoy in the north of the country.

Four other soldiers were also killed in the oil-rich southern province of Shabwa during battles that saw the army make "slow progress" against Houthis, said Colonel Motleq Jawhar, an infantry commander in the region.

On the same day, UN peace envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh landed in Sanaa to meet with senior Houthi leaders following a meeting with President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in the Saudi capital earlier this week.

Meetings with the warring factions are expected to pave the way for the resumption of the Kuwait-based peace talks on Friday after a two week break.

The negotiations have remained stagnant despite more than two months of going back and forth as both sides refuse to look pass "fundamental differences".

Ould Cheikh Ahmed has urged both sides to make concessions to end the conflict, which has cost more than 6,400 lives since March 2015 and displaced 2.8 million people.

He has put forward a peace roadmap that would see the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal and disarmament of the rebels.

Meanwhile, Houthis conditioned their withdrawal on both sides agreeing on a new president to manage the transition.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday met the two delegations in Kuwait City and urged them to accept the roadmap.

Despite a Saudi-led military intervention launched last year in support of Hadi's government, the rebels and their allies remain in control of swathes of territory including the capital Sanaa.