Saudi warplanes launched airstrikes on Yemen, hours after a UN-brokered humanitarian truce was declared, while UN Security Council had urged all parties in the conflict to “exercise restraint.”
Residents said the Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes in the capital Sana’a, shortly after the UN said all warring factions had agreed on a weeklong ceasefire, BBC reported.
Despite the ceasefire, fighting resumed early hours on Saturday. Witnesses reported multiple air raids on Sana’a.
“We heard four to five loud explosions, which shook my house far away from the west of Sana’a,” said Hussain al-Bokhaiti, a journalist based in Yemen.
There were also reports of airstrikes in Taiz and Aden, both in the south. The truce had called to allow vital supplies to reach Yemen’s stricken people.
This is while Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said he did not expect the truce to be successful in a televised speech on Friday.
“We don’t have big hope in its success because its success is linked to the commitment of the Saudi regime and its allies.”
Call for Restraint
The UN Security Council urged all parties in the conflict “to exercise restraint in cases of isolated violations and to avoid escalation,” adding that “no party should take advantage of the pause to move weapons or seize territory.”
The humanitarian truce announced by the UN on Thursday was expected to last until the end of the holy month of Ramadan to allow organizations to make emergency aid deliveries to the country’s 21 million people, who are on the brink of famine.
UN declared its highest-level of humanitarian emergency in Yemen on July 1, following a military campaign launched by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries in late March to reinstate the government of fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, exiled in Riyadh, and repel Houthis, who took control of Sana’a in September.
More than 3,000 people have been killed, including more than 1,000 civilians, in the three-month-long conflict.
