The head of a United Nations advance team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire between the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen’s Hodeida has arrived in Yemen, UN and local officials said on Saturday.
The sides in Yemen’s nearly four-year war agreed during UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden earlier this month to stop fighting in Hodeida city and its province and withdraw forces. The truce began on Tuesday but skirmishes continued on the outskirts of the city.
On Friday the UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment — for an initial 30 days — of an advance monitoring team led by retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert.
Upon arriving at Aden airport, Cammaert met with officials from the Saudi-backed government, local officials said, and he is expected to continue to Sanaa where he will meet Houthi officials.
He will then travel to Hodeida where he will oversee the truce and troop withdrawal from Hodeida city and three ports. Cammaert’s team will not be uniformed or armed, the UN has said, but it will provide support for the management of and inspections at the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras Issa; and strengthen the UN presence in the war-torn region.
The text approved by the Security Council “insists on the full respect by all parties of the ceasefire agreed” for Hodeida. It authorises the United Nations to “establish and deploy, for an initial period of 30 days from the adoption of this resolution, an advance team to begin monitoring” the ceasefire, under Cammaert’s leadership.