UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2019) Yemen's warring parties could start their redeployment from the port city of Al Hudaydah as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Tuesday.
"With the beginning, possibly today or tomorrow, of the implementation of that part of the Hudaydah agreement, we now have the opportunity, Mr. President, to move from the promise made in Sweden to hope now for Yemen," Griffiths said.
The redeployment of forces is one of several steps agreed under UN-mediated talks that began in Stokholm last December. Under the so-called Stockholm Agreement, the Yemeni government and rebel Houthi movement pledged to implement a ceasefire, exchange prisoners and open humanitarian corridors in Al Hudaydah.
Griffiths explained that in the first phase of the agreed redeployment, the warring parties will leave the ports of Saleef and Ras Isa, as well the Al Hudaydah ports and other crucial parts of the city where humanitarian facilities are located.
The redeployment will facilitate access to the Red Sea Mills food warehouse, which holds enough grain supplies to feed 3.7 million people in Yemen.
The second phase of the redeployment agreement will hopefully lead to the full demilitarization of Al Hudaydah, the envoy added.
Yemen has since March 2015 been engulfed in a violent conflict between the government headed by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and the Shiite Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since the earliest days of the conflict.
