Sanaa: The UN envoy for Yemen landed in fighter-held Sanaa on Monday for talks aimed at shoring up a truce between fighters and a government alliance in the port city of Hodeidah.
Diplomat Martin Griffiths landed in the capital at around 10:30 am local time, an official at Sanaa airport said on condition of anonymity.
A UN source confirmed the news, saying Griffiths was in Yemen to “work on the rapid implementation of the Hodeidah agreement”.
Griffiths hosted hard-won peace talks between Yemen’s government, allied with a powerful military coalition, and Ansarullah fighters in Sweden last month.
Monday’s visit marks Griffiths’ second trip to Yemen this month.
Yemen’s government coalition and fighters agreed to a ceasefire in Hodeidah, the Red Sea city seized by the Ansarullah fighters in 2014 and home to impoverished Yemen’s most valuable port. The Hodeidah agreement stipulates the withdrawal and redeployment of rival forces from the city, two clauses that have yet to be fulfilled.
Fighter-held Hodeidah was for months the main front line in the Yemen war after government forces and its allies launched an offensive to capture it in June.
But a precarious calm has largely held in the city since a ceasefire agreement came into force on December 18.
The UN said a team tasked with monitoring the truce, led by chief monitor Patrick Cammaert, came under fire in Hodeidah on Friday but was unharmed.
The UN did not identify who was behind the shooting.
Meanwhile, five demining experts killed in a weekend explosion in Yemen were from South Africa and several European countries, a Saudi-run organisation in charge of the project said on Monday.
The state-run King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) said two South Africans, a Croatian, a Bosnian and a Kosovan were killed on Sunday when a vehicle carrying mines to be destroyed exploded in the central province of Marib. — AFP
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