Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, under a truce agreement, a UN official said on Saturday, amid doubts over the handover process by pro-government forces.
The UN official, who requested anonymity, said the Houthi rebels began to pull back from the Red Sea port at midnight.
However, a pro-government official said that the loyalists were “surprised” by reports of a port handover.
“Who is that that they handed the port to and how,” the official said. “The Houthis have taken advantage of their control of Hodeida and placed their fighters in both the navy and coast guard, something that has been a major source of concern for the legitimate government.”
“The UN has to have a clear mechanism in place to ensure that there is a proper recruitment process for these crucial infrastructures,” the official said.
In a statement carried by Yemen’s Saba state news agency, another pro-government official said that it was “a clear attempt by the rebels to warp the contents of the agreement” reached at peace talks in Sweden earlier this month.
The port is the entry point for food aid to 14 million Yemenis on the brink of famine, according to UN figures, and the rebel withdrawal is a key part of a ceasefire that went into effect on Dec. 18.
Pro-government forces are also supposed to pull back from parts of the city they recaptured in an offensive they launched on June 13 with the backing of a Saudi-led coalition.
The Houthis began “the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeida port,” a rebel official told Saba.
The UN Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the deployment of observers to oversee the hard-won truce for Hodeida.
Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is heading a joint truce monitoring committee, which includes both government and rebel representatives, and chaired its first meeting this week.
The UN-led panel addressed “the first phase of the implementation of the agreement ... based on ceasefire, confidence building measures to deliver humanitarian assistance and redeployment,” a UN statement said.
It added that the panel would convene again on Jan. 1 to discuss “detailed plans for full redeployment.”
Despite the start of the Houthi withdrawal, the agreement hit a stumbling block later on Saturday with the coalition saying the rebels had not allowed an aid convoy to leave the port.
The insurgents “denied the exit of the UN humanitarian convoy... headed to [rebel-held] Sana’a that was carrying 32 tonnes of flour,” Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in a statement.
The Huthis, in turn, said in a statement that the road was “not yet unblocked because the other side has not withdrawn” from Hodeida city.
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