Copenhagen, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday said Yemeni government representatives and Houthi insurgents had agreed to a ceasefire in the embattled city of Hodeida.
Guterres said it marked an important step in the ongoing peace negotiations between the warring parties currently taking place in Rimbo — 60 km to the north of the Swedish capital Stockholm, Efe news reported.
He said it would improve living conditions for millions of Yemenis.
The UN has warned that the Arab nation, situated on the south of the Arabian Peninsula, is gripped by the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
In 2015, Houthi militias, originating from the northwest of the country where a sect of Shia Islam — the smaller of the two main branches of the religion — staged an armed uprising and eventually pushed the internationally-recognized government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile in the coastal city of Aden.
The Houthis, allegedly backed by Iran, the major Shia-majority force in the region, captured swathes of territory across the northeast and east of the country.
Hadi’s principal ally, Saudi Arabia, the Sunni kingdom that borders Yemen to the north, launched a massive aerial intervention in coalition with several partners, including the United Arab Emirates.
