A senior Yemeni official on Friday accused northern rebels of violating a ceasefire agreement hours after it took effect, killing a soldier and wounding another in an attack on a police station.
However, government authorities and rebel leaders both insisted the truce deal still holds, despite minor flare ups in fighting between the sides.
After six years of war, Yemen has come under international pressure to quickly draw a close to the conflict to free up resources to confront a separate threat from an al-Qaeda offshoot that has established a base of operations in the country a year ago.
Yemeni Deputy Interior Minister Lieutenant General Mohammed Abdullah al-Qawsi said the rebels attacked a security office and opened fire on his convoy in the northern province of Saada — a militant stronghold.
Al-Qawsi said the attack came “less than an hour after the ceasefire was announced.”
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared an end to military operations against the rebels late on Thursday, and the truce took effect at midnight.
The Hawthi rebels said in a statement posted on their Web site on Friday that they would respect the ceasefire. Leader Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi “has given instructions to all fighting fronts to cease fire as per the time announced by the Yemeni government,” the statement said.
Yemeni security officials said they expected minor violations of the deal in the short term, but insisted the ceasefire still held. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.
Several earlier ceasefires quickly disintegrated, mainly because the rebels said their demands were not addressed, and it was not clear whether the truce announced on Thursday would hold. But the rebels and the government have come under international pressure to end the conflict this time, and both sides appear eager to do so.
The UN, which warned of a looming refugee crisis in Yemen after the fighting uprooted an estimated 125,000 people, welcomed the ceasefire.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “is encouraged by the news” of the ceasefire and hopes it will hold and “provide an opportunity to fully resolve this conflict,” UN spokesman Marin Nesirky said.
“The UN continues to call for full access for humanitarian assistance to be provided to the affected civilian population,” Nesirky told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
Under the government’s truce offer, the rebels have agreed to disarm, release captured soldiers and property, clear mountain hideouts, abide by the constitution and vow not to attack Saudi Arabia.
The northern rebels are ferocious fighters who know the country’s mountainous terrain better than Yemen’s army. The fighting intensified in August, claiming an undetermined number of lives and sending 125,000 people fleeing their homes.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in