UN envoy Hans Grundberg called on Yemen’s belligerents to renew the country’s ceasefire, stressing its “tangible benefits” for a population exhausted by seven years of war.
The ceasefire, which came into effect on April 2 for two months and was the first nationwide since 2016, broke the cycle of violence and gave the Yemenis a respite, the Swedish diplomat said.
“We have seen the tangible benefits that the ceasefire has brought so far,” Grundberg said in a statement released late Wednesday, calling on the parties to the conflict to renew it “to prolong and consolidate those benefits.”
The agreement between the internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels calls for a ceasefire, accompanied by measures to alleviate the suffering of the population, such as lifting the siege on certain cities and the limited resumption of air traffic in Sana’a.
Negotiations between the warring factions about reopening the roads to Taiz, a city of 600,000 that has been surrounded by rebels for years, began in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Wednesday.
The Iran-backed Houthis seized control of Sanaa and much of the territory, triggering a military intervention under Saudi command in 2015 to support power there.
The war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged this country, the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.
Thanks to the ceasefire, which in principle expires on June 2, fighting has “decreased significantly” and more than 1,000 passengers can fly between Sanaa and Amman, said Hans Grundberg.
“The ceasefire offers an opportunity to break with the violence and suffering of the past and move towards a peaceful future in Yemen. The parties must seize this opportunity,” he added.