UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Threats to return to war in Yemen are hindering efforts to start peace talks as the Arab world’s poorest country faces an increasingly dire economic situation, a senior United Nations (UN) official said on Wednesday.
UN Special Representative for Yemen Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that hostilities between rebels and government forces haven’t returned to levels before a six-month truce that ended in October, but he said intermittent fighting and exchanges of fire have continued.
He singled out six front-line areas, including Yemen’s third-largest city, Taiz, which has been under siege by the rebels since 2016; Hodeida, where Yemen’s main port is located; and the oil-rich province of Marib, which the rebels attempted to seize in 2021.
Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014 when rebels swept down from their northern stronghold and chased the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sanaa.
A coalition intervened the following year on behalf of the government.
The war has devastated Yemen, killing more than 150,000 people and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Grundberg said his recent talks with both sides showed “general willingness to seek solutions, but this still needs to translate into concrete steps, in particular, a clear agreement on the way forward that includes restarting an inclusive Yemeni political process”.
And against the backdrop of intermittent fighting, he said, the threats to return to war are “not conducive to maintaining a fruitful mediation environment”.
Grundberg called on both sides “to refrain from escalatory rhetoric” and continue to use channels established under the truce to de-escalate incidents.
