Yemen ceasefire takes effect midnight despite violent escalations

Heavy fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels broke out across many fronts in Yemen ahead of a planned UN-brokered ceasefire to take effect Monday midnight.

MENA

3 min read

The New Arab

10 April, 2016

The viability of a ceasefire seems increasingly unlikely amid the escalation in violence [Getty]

Violent escalations by both sides in the Yemen conflict have raised fears over the stability of a UN-brokered ceasefire scheduled for Sunday as a precursor to planned peace talks.

The ceasefire between Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government are set to come into effect Sunday midnight as a necessary step ahead of peace-talks scheduled to be held in Kuwait at the end of April.

But the viability of both the ceasefire and peace negotiations seem increasingly in danger as recent developments on the ground indicate towards an escalation in violence.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels stepped up military operations in Marib, Taiz and Lahj aiming to seize new areas before the truce takes effect, a local source told The New Arab.

Large shipments of arms for the rebels arrived Saturday evening to areas around the city of Taiz, local witnesses said.

Reinforcements and supplies for the rebels, include Katyusha rockets and grenade launchers, have continued to flow in over the past two days, sources added.

Last week, US navy claimed the seizure of a shipment of weapons likely heading from Iran to Houthi rebels.

The weapons, which included 1,500 Kalashnikov rifles, 200 rocket grenade launchers and 21 calibre machine guns, were confiscated upon interception by the US navy.

A Yemeni man sits amid the rubble of his family house damaged in an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition on the capital Sanaa [Getty]

Meanwhile, fighting between government loyalists and the Houthis broke out in rebel-held Sarwah, which the loyalists have been trying to recapture for months.

At least 12 causalities were reported dead from the clashes.

Saudi-led coalition warplanes hovered overhead but did not drop any bombs or fire missiles, sources said.

The coalition, which is behind a year-long military campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, said on Friday it is wholly committed to the ceasefire deal, as long as the Houthi rebels also "show commitment."

Peace talks are set for 18 April to yield a political settlement, conditioned that the rebel recognise the government of Yemeni president Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi and hand over their heavy weapons.

If talks fail, the military option will remain on the table.

"The two tracks are parallel: the political and the military," Saudi General Ahmed al-Asiri said, "Whatever way leads to the restoration of the internationally-recognised government, we will take."

Violence and instability rocked Yemen since September 2014 when Houthi rebels seized the country's capital Sanaa, forcing the government to relocate in the southern coastal city, Aden.

The UN reported 9,000 casualties –at least half of them civilians – since the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen in March 2015, in a bid to overpower the Houthis and reinstate president Hadi's government.

Rights groups have blamed the Saudi-led airstrikes for a significant number of deaths.

Meanwhile, Yemen's al-Qaeda branch and other militants have exploited the chaos to increase their footholds.