The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen bombed areas under the control of the Hutist rebels on the night of Saturday March 26 to Sunday March 27 after the latter unilaterally announced a three-day truce, reported know Riyadh.
The war that has been ravaging Yemen, a poor country on the Arabian Peninsula, for more than seven years pits pro-government forces, supported by the coalition, against the Hutists, rebels supported by Riyadh’s great rival, Iran.
On Saturday evening, around midnight, the coalition announced that it had “launched airstrikes on the camps [militaires] and rebel strategic areas outcasts in Sanaa », the capital in the hands of the rebels since 2014, according to the Saudi state television channel, Al-Ekhbariya. No immediate comment was made on potential casualties in these raids.
Efforts for a truce during Ramadan
The coalition stepped up raids on areas controlled by Houthi rebels, including Sanaa (north) and the southern region of Hodeida (west), in response to a new series of rebel attacks against Saudi Arabia on Friday. One of them caused – without causing any casualties – a gigantic fire in an oil site in Jeddah (west), near the Formula 1 circuit which hosted the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia this weekend.
But the following day, the rebels announced that they would cease their offensives in their country as well as in Saudi Arabia for ” three days “.
This truce could become “permanent” if Saudi Arabia lifts the “blockade” on Yemen, cease its air raids and withdraw its “foreign forces” of the country, said Mahdi al-Mashat, a senior official of the Hutists. The Saudis did not react to this announcement.
On Sunday, the office of the United Nations (UN) special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced that he “continued its efforts for a truce during Ramadan”the Muslim month of fasting which takes place this year in April. “He reiterates his call for de-escalation and welcomes all the steps taken by the parties in this direction”he said on Twitter.
“worrying prospects”
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had “strongly condemns the recent escalation of the conflict in Yemen”denouncing so much “the air attacks carried out on Friday by the outcasts » than “the ensuing coalition airstrikes in Sanaa”. According to the UN, these raids “would have killed eight civilians, including five children and two women”.
This situation suggests “extremely worrying outlook”according to Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). “The reality is that despair, poverty, destruction, have reached such a level in Yemen that the majority of the population is no longer able, in one way or another, to support themselves”the UN official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
With nearly 380,000 dead and millions displaced according to the United Nations, the war has caused one of the worst humanitarian tragedies in the world in Yemen, with a large part of the population facing acute hunger, sometimes close to famine. .
