Yemen: Saudi military alliance announces ceasefire

The civil war in Yemen continues to rage even in times of the corona virus. Now the military alliance led by Saudi Arabia is surprisingly announcing a ceasefire there - as a measure against the pandemic. Can the two-week fire break calm the conflict in the long term?

Sanaa (dpa) - According to the military alliance led by Saudi Arabia, a nationwide ceasefire applies to Thursday for two weeks from Thursday.

The Saudi military coalition said the goal was to prevent the spread of the corona virus, according to the state news agency SPA. The move follows a corresponding call by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to stop fighting because of the risk of the virus.

The Houthi rebels who are fighting the Saudi alliance in Yemen and who are supported by Iran did not initially confirm the ceasefire. The spokesman for the military coalition, Turki al-Malki, has also announced the prospect of a possible ceasefire extension. This could create conditions for a meeting between representatives of the Yemeni government and the Houthis to talk about steps towards a permanent ceasefire, Al-Malki said.

So far, no infections with Sars-CoV-2 have been officially reported in the civil war country. An outbreak could have devastating consequences: Medical care in the bitterly poor country on the Arabian Peninsula is very poor. Thousands of people have already died of the consequences of the curable infectious disease cholera. Only about half of the health centers in Yemen are fully operational.

UN chief Guterres called for a ceasefire in Yemen two weeks ago because of the pandemic. The parties to the conflict should concentrate on a political solution and do everything possible to stop the impending outbreak of the corona virus. The UN development aid program UNDP spoke of an "invisible tsunami" that could reach Yemen at any time. Covid-19 is a "new, relentless opponent who will be invincible if the armed conflict continues," UNDP said last week.

The civil war in Yemen has been raging since 2014 when the Houthi militias supported by Iran overran the impoverished country. They brought large parts of the north, including the capital Sanaa, under their control. When they threatened to take the strategically important port city of Aden in the south, Saudi Arabia entered the war with allies. The alliance has been bombing Houthi positions since March 2015. The humanitarian situation is catastrophic: more than 80 percent of the roughly 30 million inhabitants depend on help.

The fighting in Yemen had calmed down towards the end of 2019. According to observers, the country experienced one of the comparatively quietest phases since the beginning of the war. Then, in mid-January, a rocket attack on a military camp in the Marib province east of Sanaa followed, killing more than 100 government soldiers. Nobody confessed to the attack. The government of internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi blamed the Houthis for this.

According to experts, the Houthi rebels ("Ansar Allah") and their allies in Yemen are today as strong and well organized as they have been in two years. With drones and rockets, they regularly attack targets in neighboring Saudi Arabia. They also penetrated east in the Marib province into areas controlled by the government. The Saudi military alliance fighting alongside the government then intensified its air strikes in the country.