Truce offers glimmer of hope to Yemenis battered by seven-year war

Reuters

SANAA/ADEN – Yemenis welcomed a nationwide U.N.-brokered ceasefire due to come into effect on Saturday evening as a glimmer of hope in a country ravaged by a seven-year conflict that has forced millions into hunger, poverty and homelessness.

But after numerous failed attempts at peace and more than a year of escalating violence, Yemenis have greeted the news cautiously.

“The truce is good but I do not have faith in its success, because each side will have a different interpretation of how to implement it and it will collapse,” said 38-year-old electrician Murad Abdullah in Aden, the interim capital of Yemen’s government.


The two-month truce, which coincides with the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, is the first time since 2016 that warring sides have agreed a nationwide cessation of hostilities.

Government employee Ibtihal al-Arashi saw the deal as temporary, pointing to the failure of past Ramadan peace attempts. “We want to end this absurd war. We want real peace under a civil state that protects rights and freedoms,” she said.

The ceasefire was due to come into effect at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) and can be renewed.

The deal includes a halt to offensive military operations, including cross-border attacks, and also allows fuel imports into areas controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group and some commercial flights to operate from the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in March 2015 in support of the Yemeni government against the Houthis, controls Yemen’s seas and air space.

Customers in a busy Sanaa market welcomed the possibility that the truce might herald real progress after years of hardship.

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“This truce is indeed good, an excellent thing, but let’s see how it is actually implemented … Should the strikes on Sanaa stop, the airport open, Hodeidah port open, then we will feel there is a truce, that it has something tangible,” said Najeeb al-Bashiri, a government employee.

U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg has said he will press for a permanent ceasefire.

The U.N and U.S. Yemen envoys had been trying since last year to engineer a permanent truce needed to revive stalled political negotiations. The Houthis wanted the coalition blockade lifted first, while the alliance sought a simultaneous deal.

“We welcome this essential development for millions of Yemenis who need a respite after years of relentless fighting,” said the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian agency operating in Yemen. “We really hope this is the start of a new chapter.”

The conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran.

Iran on Saturday said it hoped the truce could presage a complete lifting of the blockade and a permanent ceasefire.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Reyam Mukhashaf and Yemen team; writing by Lisa Barrington; editing by Clelia Oziel)

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