Local ceasefire monitors arrived at three Yemeni provinces yesterday to consolidate a shaky truce, residents and officials said, ahead of UN-sponsored peace talks scheduled to start in Kuwait next week.
Over 6,200 people have been killed in a year of fighting between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthis, a conflict pitting the Yemeni allies of Saudi Arabia against those of Iran.
Local officials said teams of 12 monitors were deployed in Marib province east of the capital Sanaa, in southwestern Taiz province and in Hajjah province in the north to try to stop truce violations and allow humanitarian aid to pass through.
The monitors - officers and tribal figures from among the Houthis and followers of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, along with Hadi’s government - would also try to resolve problems and record complaints of violations and send them to a higher committee working under UN supervision.
The deployment comes amid fresh reports of violations by both sides of the truce that began at midnight on Sunday.
Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam had said local committees would be deployed in six provinces where fighting had been taking place. Apart from Marib, Hajjah and Taiz, monitors would also be deployed in Shabwa, al-Bayda and Dalea provinces in southern and central Yemen.
Abdel-Salam, in remarks to the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published yesterday, said the Houthis regard the truce “as a step towards a complete halt to the war” in Yemen.