The Houthi government and rebels have agreed to renew the truce that has been running since early April, for another two months. An agreement obtained in extremis, according to the UN.
The truce obtained at the beginning of April under the aegis of the UN was to end this Thursday evening. But the belligerents finally agreed to renew it for two additional months.
The text provides, in addition to a ceasefire, generally respected so far, for measures aimed at relieving the population which has suffered the consequences of the war for more than 7 years. Among these measures: the gradual reopening to commercial flights of the airport of Sanaa, the Yemeni capital controlled by the Houthi rebels; free access for oil tankers to the ports held by these same rebels, or even negotiations to reopen the access roads to the strategic city of Taiz.
The conflict in Yemen started in 2014 when rebels, the Houthis, seized the capital Sanaa and half of the country. The intervention in 2015 of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia in support of the government did not bring an end to hostilities, quite the contrary. The conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and caused a serious humanitarian crisis.
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