An UN-brokered two-month truce took effect in Yemen Saturday, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and analysts hope for a rare respite in the impoverished country’s seven-year war.
The Iran-backed Huthi rebels and the Saudi-led military coalition, which intervened in 2015 to shore up Yemen’s government against the insurgents a year after they seized the capital Sanaa, have both agreed to observe the ceasefire.
But will it hold when previous truces have fallen apart? Here are some key questions about the ceasefire agreed in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.
– Why now? –
Mohammed Al-Basha, a Yemen expert for the US-based Navanti research group, says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the disruption of global food and energy supplies were a trigger.
“The prolonged hostilities in Ukraine are creating urgency to end the war in Yemen,” he said.
Yemen’s war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly and displaced millions, triggering the…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
