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War-torn Yemen at a ‘critical juncture’: UN
DUBAI, March 7, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Yemen is at a crossroads, the United
Nations’ envoy to the war-torn country said Saturday, as tens of thousands of
people fled the northern province of Al-Jawf after fierce clashes.
Iran-backed Huthi insurgents seized provincial capital Al-Hazm earlier
this month after heavy fighting with government troops, ending a relative
lull in violence that had raised hopes for a more permanent de-escalation.
“Yemen is, in my view, at a critical juncture: we will either silence the
guns and resume the political process, or we will slip back into large-scale
conflict,” Martin Griffiths said during a visit to Marib province.
“Fighting needs to stop now. Military adventurism and the quest for
territorial gains are futile,” he told reporters, according to a transcript
provided by his office.
“They will only drag Yemen to many more years of conflict.”
The latest clashes in northern Yemen came after a months-long relative
lull in violence as the warring parties showed an apparent interest in de-
escalation.
But efforts to resume a political process appear to be unravelling.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the fighting
between the warring parties in Al-Jawf has displaced tens of thousands of
people to Marib province.
“The ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent Society have helped around 70,000
people, or 10,000 families, by providing food, tents, blankets, jerrycans,
basins and hygiene kits,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday.
“In Al-Jawf governorate, increased clashes have hampered efforts to help
patients and those in need.”
The loss of the strategic city of Al-Hazm means the rebels now threaten
oil-rich Marib.
At least 2,100 displaced families reached Marib on March 1, the UN
humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said last week.
Al-Jawf has been mostly controlled by the Huthis, but its capital — only
150 kilometres (90 miles) south of the border with Saudi Arabia — had been
in the hands of the government.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government has been battling the Huthi
rebels since 2014 when they captured the capital Sanaa and swathes of the
impoverished Arab nation.
Since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015, tens of thousands
of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced, in what
the UN has termed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 2330 hrs