Yemen: Saudi-led coalition announces extension of ceasefire for a month

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted a spokesman for the Riyadh-led coalition confirming that the unilateral ceasefire in Yemen has been extended for a month.

The spokesman for the coalition forces, Colonel Turki Al-Maliki, affirmed that the coalition leadership decided to extend the ceasefire for a month starting from April 23, 2020, based on its previous declaration of a two-week ceasefire and at the request of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to establish a ceasefire in order to allow the warring parties to make progress in negotiations on a permanent armistice.

Al-Maliki added that the decision to extend the ceasefire came to allow the parties to the conflict to agree on the most important economic and humanitarian measures to resume the political process.

He added that this step constitutes an expression of the coalition’s commitment to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Yemeni people and work to confront the coronavirus pandemic and prevent it from spreading in the holy month of Ramadan.

READ: ‘Imminent war’ between UAE and Saudi-backed forces in Yemen

Al-Maliki continued that the coalition leadership reaffirms that there is still an opportunity to work together to reach a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Yemen, and to agree on serious, concrete and direct steps to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people. He noted that the Saudi-led coalition will support all these essential steps, in cooperation with the United Nations, in order to reach a comprehensive and just political solution agreed upon by the Yemenis.

On Thursday, a two-week ceasefire declared by the Arab coalition fighting the Houthi movement ended.

A ceasefire across Yemen on 9 April came into effect. However, the Houthi movement rejected this decision and considered it as: “A mere fraud designated to mislead the international community.”

The United Nations last month called for a global ceasefire to allow the world to focus on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, while aid agencies fear that the pandemic would cause a disaster in a country that has been witnessing a war for the last five years.