The Yemeni government and the Huthi insurgency finalize a truce as a possible prelude to a peace agreement

The truce could be extended until the end of this year at the start of a three-year UN-brokered peace process.

7 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Government of Yemen and the Huthi insurgency are finalizing a new truce that could serve as a possible prelude to a “comprehensive peace agreement” in the country, sources close to the negotiations have assured in the last few hours, on condition of anonymity, to various Arab media.

The first part of this process would begin with the declaration of a new truce until the end of 2023, according to the Al Araby al Jadeed portal, which would be accompanied by a relaxation of the restrictions on flights to the capital, Sanaa, under the control of the insurgency since the beginning of the conflict at the end of 2014, the resumption of crude oil exports and the total reopening of the country’s highways.

The government and the Houthis already agreed on a ceasefire in April last year that contributed to a significant drop in violence for most of 2022. Although the truce was not extended in October, the tense calm lasted for the following months, but a new rise in hostilities since February has unleashed fears of a reactivation of the conflict.

This new truce would function as a prologue to a comprehensive peace agreement that, according to Yemeni sources to the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, would operate under the auspices of the United Nations and would mean a continuation of the aspects agreed upon in the new ceasefire and would also incorporate two other factors. crucial: the unification of the institutions of the divided country and the total exchange of prisoners of war between both sides.

This process would take place in three phases lasting six months, three months and two years and would also involve Saudi Arabia and Iran as the two great international allies of the Yemeni government and the Houthis insurgents, respectively, as well as Oman, the country who has acted as a regular mediator during the talks between both sides.

The war in Yemen has ended up plunging what was one of the poorest countries in the world into the worst humanitarian catastrophe at present, according to the United Nations. More than 21 million Yemenis (two thirds of the population) will need humanitarian aid this year and 17 million of them will need to receive it urgently to survive.

The conflict has left almost 380,000 dead, either from the fighting or from hunger and disease; more than 85,000 of them children, to which must be added four million displaced persons, according to data considered by UN agencies.