GENEVA (AP) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon pressed Monday for a halt to fighting in Yemen at the beginning of Ramadan, which starts later this week, as the world body launched talks aimed at brokering peace.
Ban, who met in Geneva with some of the delegations involved in the talks, said he had “emphasized the importance of having another humanitarian pause at least two weeks.”
Such a pause won’t be enough in itself to get aid to all needy Yemenis “given the obstacles to access and the scale of destruction,” Ban told reporters. He called for the warring factions to go further and agree on local cease-fires, withdrawing armed groups from cities.
A previous five-day pause was violated repeatedly, and aid groups said it was hardly sufficient to reach millions in the Arab world’s poorest country.
Yemen’s conflict pits exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis – who seized the capital, Sanaa, last year – and military units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A Saudi-led coalition began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies on March 26, shortly after Hadi fled a rebel advance on the south.