Sana’a: Saudi-led forces accused Yemen’s Al Houthis of violating a ceasefire on Thursday but said they will abide by a five-day humanitarian truce that has allowed aid agencies to deliver relief supplies.
The humanitarian pause that began late Tuesday is the first break in the air war the Saudi-led coalition launched on March 26 in support of exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and has strong backing from Washington.
In a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, the coalition said the Iran-backed militia had violated the truce 12 times, including with artillery and rocket attacks in several towns in the south.
Officials said rockets fired from the militia-held north had also hit Saudi border areas on Wednesday and that there had been militia troop movements in Yemen’s south.
Despite the alleged violations, the coalition pledged “its full commitment to the humanitarian truce and restraint”.
Residents said calm prevailed across most of the country Thursday except in three cities - Taez, Daleh and oil-rich Marib - where there were reports of intermittent exchanges of fire between rebel and pro-Hadi forces.
The alleged violations came despite a promise by the Al Houthis and their allies to abide by the ceasefire. Riyadh has warned it will punish any attempt to exploit the truce.
A US State Department spokesman said while the truce was “broadly” holding, it had received some reports of clashes after the ceasefire began.
Al Houthis, allied with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have taken control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sana’a and were advancing on Hadi’s southern stronghold of Aden when Riyadh launched the air campaign.
More than 1,500 people have been killed since March in the air campaign and fighting between rebel forces and Hadi loyalists, according to the United Nations.
An aviation official said that operations at Sana’a airport, which was repeatedly targeted in air raids, were “gradually returning” after a plane arrived from Jordan on Wednesday with 150 passengers on board.
In text messages sent to residents, Yemen’s civil aviation authority announced that “two flights from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the United Nations will arrive today (Thursday) in Sana’a”.
The weeks since the start of the air war have seen repeated warnings of a dire humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, water, fuel and medical aid.
The UN’s food agency said Wednesday the situation in Yemen had become “catastrophic”.
Dominique Burgeon, emergencies director at the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation, said the problems civilians faced were “very serious and at the moment the country lacks everything”.
The government’s Sabanew.net agency quoted Riyadh-based Nadia Sakkaf, Yemen’s information minister and head of the country’s High Relief Committee, saying that seven vessels carrying food supplies, medical aid and fuel had docked in Yemeni ports.
She said that daily flights would continue between Yemen, Jordan and Egypt until May 18 - when the truce is due to end.
Iran, which Saudi Arabia accuses of arming the rebels, has also said it is sending an aid ship to Yemen, prompting warnings from the government-in-exile.
Speaking from Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said that “all measures will be taken against the Iranian ship if it enters Yemeni territorial waters without permission” from the coalition, Sabanew.net reported.
Yassin said his government is also “considering severing diplomatic ties with Iran.”
The Pentagon said Tuesday it was tracking the aid ship, while the Iranian military has warned against any attempts to stop it.
The newly appointed UN envoy to Yemen, Esmail Ould Cheikh Ahmad, arrived in Sana’a on Tuesday for talks on restarting a collapsed political dialogue.
