Yemen ceasefire to begin Wednesday
October 18, 2016, 8:34 am

People shout slogans during a rally protesting airstrikes on a funeral hall in Sanaa [Xinhua]

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement that he had received assurances from all Yemeni parties of their commitment to the ceasefire.

“The Special Envoy welcomes the restoration of the Cessation of Hostilities, which will spare the Yemeni people further bloodshed and will allow for the expanded delivery of humanitarian assistance,” the statement said.

The decision follows US Secretary of State John Kerry’s call for an unconditional ceasefire in the civil war on Sunday, a day after the Navy destroyer USS Mason fired at the coastline of civil war-wracked country for the third time this week.

The US Navy says it fired in response to a second missile attack targeting the USS Mason in international waters. The destroyer deployed countermeasures and destroyed the missile before it reached the vessel.

This also follows the deadly bombing of a funeral in Sanaa by Saudi coalition forces that killed around 140 people on October 8, making it one of the deadliest attacks the country’s civil war, a UN official said.

Meanwhile, exiled Yemeni President Mansour Hadi has said that he’s committed to the ceasefire as long as the Houthi opposition group sticks to it as well.

In January 2015, the Houthis – who are Shia – seized the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa and forced then leader Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to resign. They have since sought to consolidate their hold on the country.

Hadi, who was placed under house arrest, eventually escaped and fled to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen.

He then declared Aden the new temporary capital of the entire country, but the Houthis pursued him there and captured that city as well.

The fall of Aden prompted the Saudis and some of their allies to mount military operations against the Houthis, who they accuse of acting as Iranian proxies.

The fight between the Houthis and the government, which was formed in November 2014, has created a security and political vacuum that has been used by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the more militant Islamic State (ISIL), to grow their strength and influence.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies