SANAA: Retired Danish general Michael Lollesgaard arrived Tuesday in Sanaa to head the UN observer mission in war-wracked Yemen and replace his predecessor whose ties with the rebels were reportedly strained.
Lollesgaard replaces Patrick Cammaert, the Dutch general who had been tapped a little over a month ago to lead the mission deployed in the lifeline Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
The new mission head made no comments upon his arrival in Sanaa, an AFP correspondent said, and it was not clear when exactly he would begin his mission in Hodeida.
He will oversee a team of 75 unarmed observers to monitor a fragile ceasefire deal for Hodeida agreed in December between the Huthis and the Yemeni government at UN-brokered talks in Sweden.
Diplomats say relations have been strained between Cammaert and the Iran-linked Huthi rebels battling the Saudi-backed government, and with the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths.
Some Huthis have accused him of running his own agenda, a claim disputed by the United Nations which said his only mission was to improve the lives of the embattled Yemeni people.
On January 17, his convoy came under fire in the flashpoint city of Hodeida but he and his team escaped unhurt and the UN said the source of the shooting was unknown.
Hodeida port is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen's supplies of imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions on the brink of starvation.
Lollesgaard, born in 1960, commanded the UN peacekeeping force in Mali (MINUSMA) from 2015 to 2016, and he then became Denmark's military representative to NATO and the European Union in 2017.
He was also military adviser to Denmark's UN mission in New York and served in peace support operations in Iraq and Bosnia
His new appointment was endorsed at the end of January by the UN Security Council.
Yemen's rebels have been mired in a war with government forces backed since 2015 by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The conflict has triggered what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people at risk of starvation.
The World Health Organization has put the death toll since 2015 at about 10,000 people but rights groups say that figure could be five times higher.
New head of UN observer mission lands in Yemen
New head of UN observer mission lands in Yemen
- Lollesgaard replaces his predecessor whose ties with the rebels were reportedly strained
Israel army issues new evacuation warnings in Lebanon
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighborhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action.
“Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages which names are shown. For your safety you must evacuate your homes immediately,” said a statement by the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.
Many of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” he told the residents of southern Beirut neighborhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning.
Lebanon’s government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision.
Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones toward Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks.
Israel bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday in response, vowing to make the group pay a “heavy price.”
The Lebanese health ministry said the strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 149.
