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Coalition urges UN to save Hodeidah truce

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Sanaa: A hard-won ceasefire in Yemen’s battleground city of Hodeidah will collapse if violations persist and the United Nations does not intervene, the Saudi-led coalition backing the government warned on Wednesday.


Underscoring still-simmering tensions, the coalition said it launched an air strike at the airport in the Ansar Allah-held capital Sanaa, destroying a drone that was preparing to take off.


It was the first air raid that the alliance has confirmed carrying out at the airport since peace talks last week in Sweden that resulted in the Hodeidah ceasefire accord.


A breakdown of the truce would risk a renewed coalition offensive and a halt to humanitarian operations at the city’s vital Red Sea port.


UN observers are due in Yemen to head up monitoring teams made up of government and rebel representatives tasked with overseeing the implementation of the UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday.


The UN Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee will convene its first meeting by video conference from New York on Wednesday before heading to Yemen “later this week”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Hodeidah residents reached by telephone said there was complete calm in the port city on Wednesday morning following intermittent gunfire during the night. But the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting alongside the government since March 2015, complained of repeated rebel breaches since the truce went into effect.


“A total of 21 violations since ceasefire commencement have come to our notice,” a coalition source said.


“If the UN continues to drag the chain and take too long to get into the (military) theatre, they will lose the opportunity altogether... and the agreement will turn a dead duck,” the source said in English.


“We will continue to give them the benefit of the doubt and show restraint but early indicators are not promising.” The rebels, in turn, accused pro-government forces of violating the truce. The Saba news agency said loyalist forces targeted several areas of the city and its surrounding province overnight. A UN official, who requested anonymity, said the truce “was holding despite reports of skirmishes”.


The observers of the Redeployment Coordination Committee are due to oversee the withdrawal of the warring parties from the city. — AFP


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