HODEIDA, Yemen: At least 150 people have been killed in 24 hours of clashes in Yemen’s Hodeida, medics and military sources said on Monday, as international pressure mounted for a ceasefire in the vital port city.
Government loyalists supported by a Saudi-led coalition are fighting to oust the Ansarullah fighters from the Red Sea city, whose docks are a lifeline to 14 million Yemenis at risk of starvation.
“If the port at Hodeida is destroyed, that could create an absolutely catastrophic situation,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.
“The fighting must stop, a political debate must begin, and we must prepare a massive humanitarian response to avoid the worst next year,” he said.
A source in the pro-government coalition said the Ansarullah fighters had pushed back a large-scale assault aimed at moving towards the port.
Government forces, led on the ground by troops, have made their way into Hodeida after 11 days of clashes, reaching residential neighbourhoods in the east on Sunday and sparking fears of street fights that would further endanger civilians trapped in the city.
Residents and government military sources have reported rebel snipers stationed on rooftops in civilian streets in eastern Hodeida, a few kilometres from the port on the western edge of the city. Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children’s field coordinator in Yemen, said that the people in Hodeida are living in a “state of fear”.
“There is ongoing fighting, and the situation is very bad,” she said over the weekend by phone, as strikes were heard in the background.
The Hodeida offensive has sparked international outcry unprecedented in nearly four years of conflict between the Ansarullah fighters and the government.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to engage in peace talks. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited Saudi Arabia on Monday, where he pressed King Salman and Prince Mohammed to support UN efforts to end the conflict, the Foreign Office said.
Both the United States and Britain are major suppliers of arms
to Saudi Arabia.
Hunt will also meet senior officials from Yemen and the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates.
“The human cost of war in Yemen is incalculable,” Hunt said ahead of his trip. “The only solution is now a political decision to set aside arms and pursue peace.”
Aid groups fear for the safety of nearly 600,000 people living in Hodeida — and for millions of others dependent on its port for what little food and humanitarian aid trickle into impoverished, blockaded Yemen.
A military official in Hodeida on Monday confirmed seven civilians had died, without giving further details.
Medics in hospitals across Hodeida province reported 111 rebels and 32 loyalist fighters killed overnight, according to a tally by AFP.
Sources at the Al Alfi military hospital, seized by the rebels during their 2014 takeover, said charred body parts had been delivered there overnight. Military sources confirmed that the alliance had targeted the Ansarullah fighters with multiple air strikes. The Ansarullah fighters have begun to evacuate their wounded to Sanaa, the capital, which the Ansarullah seized during a 2014 takeover that included a string of ports on Yemen’s coastline.
Nearly 600 people have been killed since clashes erupted in Hodeida on November 1, ending a temporary suspension in a government offensive to take the city that began in June.
— Agencies
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