CAIRO: The UN says it is monitoring the redeployment of Houthi forces from three key ports in Yemen after the government dismissed the withdrawal as a “farce.”
Lt. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard, the head of a UN mission monitoring the cease-fire in Hodeidah, said Sunday that monitors will verify the Houthi withdrawal from the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras-Issa on Tuesday.
The Houthis say they began withdrawing on Saturday, in line with a long-delayed agreement reached in in December. Both sides agreed to withdraw from Hodeidah, which handles 70 percent of Yemen’s food imports and humanitarian aid, but remain divided over who will administer the ports after they leave.
The pullback is considered a first step in implementing a hard-won truce agreement for Hodeidah struck in Sweden in December between Yemen's internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed Houthis.
Yemen's information minister dismissed the Houthis' withdrawal announcement, accusing them of "a policy of deception."
"What the Houthi militia did is a repeated theatrical play of handing over control of the port to its own forces (in different uniforms)," Moammer Al-Eryani tweeted.
"This shows its continued manipulation and evasion to implement the Sweden agreement... by adopting a policy of deception."
The governor of Hodeidah, Al-Hasan Taher, said Saturday the Houthis were merely reshuffling personnel.
"The Houthis are staging a new ploy by handing over the ports of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Issa to themselves without any monitoring by the United Nations and the government side," said the official.
"This is totally rejected by us, and the agreement must be implemented in full, especially with regards to the identity of the troops that will take over from the Houthis," he added.
UN monitors Houthi withdrawal from Yemen’s Hodeidah
UN monitors Houthi withdrawal from Yemen’s Hodeidah
- Yemen's information minister dismissed the Houthis' withdrawal announcement, accusing them of "a policy of deception"
- The governor of Hodeidah, Al-Hasan Taher, said Saturday the Houthis were merely reshuffling personnel
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
