Saudi-backed Yemen government says ceasefire agreement ‘unenforceable’

Yemeni Foreign Minister, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, said on Saturday that the UN-brokered Stockholm agreement on a ceasefire in Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah is “unenforceable”.

Al-Hadharmi’s remarks came after an official member of the Yemeni government’s agreement implementation team, identified as Mohammed Al-Sulihi, was assassinated by Houthi militants on 11 March.

“Al-Sulihi death while performing his national duty, within the framework of the UN mission, proves that the Houthis has no covenant,” Al-Hadhrami wrote on Twitter, stressing that the agreement was becoming “unenforceable”.

READ: Houthi shelling kills 3 civilians in central Yemen

In December 2018, under UN supervision, the Iranian-backed Houthi group and Saudi-led coalition signed an agreement in the Swedish capital of Stockholm to halt violence in Hudaydah, handing control to local units of Yemeni coastguards were charged with protecting ports. The Red Sea city is a vital gateway for aid shipments in the war-torn country.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

Since then, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including numerous civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.