Sana’a - The UN Yemen envoy faced his “sternest test” on Wednesday as he headed to the Al Houthi-occupied capital Sana’a to try to avert all-out fighting for the port of Hodeida and widespread famine.
The government and its Saudi-led military backers have largely suspended a five-month-old offensive on the Red Sea port city as UN envoy Martin Griffiths makes the biggest peace push in two years.
UN agencies say up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation if the port of Hodeida is closed by fighting or damage.
Griffiths was due to fly into Sana’a for talks with the Iran-backed Al Houthi political leaders later on Wednesday as he attempts to revive a peace process that collapsed in acrimony in Switzerland in September when the rebels failed to show up.
The international community is demanding in return that the rebels halt all offensive operations, particularly missile attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia, and commit to joining talks on handing over of the port of Hodeida to UN control.
“Griffiths faces the sternest test of his young tenure,” said Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group.
“If his mediation efforts succeed in preventing a destructive battle for Hodeida, he could build momentum towards reviving a peace process that has been stalled for the past two years.
“But if he fails, peace in Yemen will look increasingly remote ...”
Both sides have in the past week expressed support for the envoy and his mission to convene new peace talks in Sweden, but fierce clashes flared again in Hodeida late Tuesday.
Just hours before Griffiths’ planned arrival in Sana’a, residents in the east of Hodeida told AFP by telephone they could hear fighting, and reported shrapnel falling in residential neighbourhoods.
On Monday, Britain presented to the UN Security Council a draft resolution urging an immediate truce in Hodeida and setting a two-week deadline for the two sides to remove all barriers to humanitarian aid.
Griffiths said Monday he hoped the rivals would meet in Sweden “within the next few weeks”. No date has been set.
The militia overran Sana’a in late 2014, when they also took control of Hodeida and its port.
A year later, the coalition intervened as President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled into Saudi exile.
The World Food Programme says up to 14 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation.
Save the Children said on Wednesday that some 85,000 infants under the age of five may have died of severe malnutrition or related diseases between March 2015 and this October based on UN agency figures.
