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New head of UN observer mission lands in Yemen
SANAA, Feb 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Retired Danish general Michael Lollesgaard
arrived Tuesday in Sanaa to head the UN observer mission in war-wracked Yemen
and replace his predecessor whose ties with the rebels were reportedly
strained.
Lollesgaard replaces Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch general who had been
tapped a little over a month ago to lead the mission deployed in the lifeline
Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
The new mission head made no comments upon his arrival in Sanaa, an AFP
correspondent said, and it was not clear when exactly he would begin his
mission in Hodeida.
He will oversee a team of 75 unarmed observers to monitor a fragile
ceasefire deal for Hodeida agreed in December between the Huthis and the
Yemeni government at UN-brokered talks in Sweden.
Diplomats say relations have been strained between Cammaert and the Iran-
linked Huthi rebels battling the Saudi-backed government, and with the UN
envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths.
Some Huthis have accused him of running his own agenda, a claim disputed
by the United Nations which said his only mission was to improve the lives of
the embattled Yemeni people.
On January 17, his convoy came under fire in the flashpoint city of
Hodeida but he and his team escaped unhurt and the UN said the source of the
shooting was unknown.
Hodeida port is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s supplies of
imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions on the
brink of starvation.
Lollesgaard, born in 1960, commanded the UN peacekeeping force in Mali
(MINUSMA) from 2015 to 2016, and he then became Denmark’s military
representative to NATO and the European Union in 2017.
He was also military adviser to Denmark’s UN mission in New York and
served in peace support operations in Iraq and Bosnia.
His new appointment was endorsed at the end of January by the UN Security
Council.
Yemen’s rebels have been mired in a war with government forces backed
since 2015 by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The conflict has triggered what the UN calls the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis, with millions of people at risk of starvation.
The World Health Organization has put the death toll since 2015 at about
10,000 people but rights groups say that figure could be five times higher.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1830 hrs