U.N. envoy urges fighters to withdraw from Hodeida port
DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) — The United Nations envoy for Yemen on Monday urged the warring parties to withdraw their troops from the port of Hodeida quickly, and international aid agencies said conditions for thousands of starving people were deteriorating fast.
Envoy Martin Griffiths acknowledged that proposed timelines on a pullout from the port, the main entry point for Yemen’s commercial and aid imports, had slipped while the country stood on the brink of famine.
“The initial timelines were rather ambitious,” he said in comments posted on Twitter. “We are dealing with a complex situation on the ground.”
The aid agencies, meeting in London, said people were struggling to feed their children in what had become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
But, said Isabelle Moussard Carlsen of Action Against Hunger, more aid was not the only solution to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people. “I think we need to be very clear that we need a political solution to this conflict,” she said.
Agreements reached in December between the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were the first significant breakthrough in four years of conflict which have killed tens of thousands of people through military actions or other causes.
But little further progress has been made, risking the unravelling of the peace efforts.
The Houthis control Hodeida, and troops of a Saudi-led coalition are massed on its outskirts. The warring sides disagree over who should control the city and port after forces withdraw.
The truce in Hodeida has largely been respected since coming into force a month ago, but skirmishes continue. Troops have not yet pulled out, missing a Jan. 7 target, and residents and aid workers have told Reuters that barricades, trenches and roadblocks have been reinforced.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres notified the Security Council on Monday, in a letter seen by Reuters, that he would appoint a new head of the U.N. monitoring mission tasked with overseeing the Hodeida peace deal.
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