YEMEN-SECURITY/TRUCE Yemenis react to UN-brokered humanitarian truce

Record ID: 147773

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/TRUCE Yemenis react to UN-brokered humanitarian truce
  • Date: 10th July 2015
  • Summary: CAMERAMAN FILMING HOUTHI EVENT PALESTINE FLAG MAN HOLDING MODEL MISSILES
  • Embargoed: 25th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA63M446XRTFX6K1RI5T78K3X0N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As a much-anticipated truce approaches, war-weary Yemenis in the capital Sanaa remain ambivalent about its effectiveness and say what they really want is a permanent end to the three month war that has battered and destroyed cities across the country.
    "We don't want a truce. This truce will serve as preparation for a new war. We want to end the war between the two sides. We don't want problems, we just want to end the war," said Sanaa resident Aref Mohammed al Aiashi.
    Yemen's main warring factions have endorsed a U.N.-brokered humanitarian truce set to begin midnight on Friday (July 10).
    The week-long truce will end at the same time as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and aims to get aid to some 21 million Yemenis in need.
    "There must be an internal truce before there is an external truce. The parties (within Yemen) must abide by the truce regardless in Taiz or Maarib or Aden so that the people can spend what's left of Ramadan and the Eid in peace," said Sanaa resident Sadam Hussein al Rouhani.
    A Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab states has been bombing the Iranian-allied Houthi rebel movement since late March in a bid to restore to power Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh.
    The conflict has plunged Yemen, already the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, into a severe humanitarian crisis, with millions facing food, water, fuel and medicine shortages.
    Many Yemenis fear both sides may use the truce to prepare for another round of fighting.
    "As a Yemeni victim of Al Saud (Saudi ruling family), I don't like the idea of a truce," said Sanaa resident Sarhan Naji al Shehabi.
    "Second, these people, the children of Saud, they are cunning. They don't want a truce and they don't want to stop the war and they want to destroy the Republic of Yemen because they inherited these ambitions from their parents," he added.
    "In my opinion, there is no truce in Yemen, but rather a break for the fighters on both sides," said Sanaa resident Wahib al Hiani.
    "Now, both sides are working to re-organise and regroup and it is the Yemeni people who will pay the price who are waiting for final solution to this crisis and not a five day truce," he added.
    Meanwhile, the fighting continued Friday, as Houthis shelled residential areas in the southern port of Aden overnight and pushed further into Yemen's eastern Hadramawt desert, the centre of the country's modest oil resources, fighting tribal militiamen, a local official said.
    The Saudi-led campaign of air strikes targeted the capital Sanaa on Friday and hit mainly central and southern cities overnight.
    On Thursday night, an air strike hit a school where internally displaced people have taken refuge in the southern province of Lahj, killing nine people and wounding 14 others, residents said.
    The Arab coalition has pounded the Houthis and their army allies from the air since March 26 as part of a bid to restore exiled president Hadi to power. The air raids and fighting have killed more than 3,000 people since then.
    "We don't count on the truce or on Al Saud (Saudi ruling family) or on the United Nations. We count only on men and weapons. As for those liars that play with the emotions of people with imaginary truces, we don't count on them much at all," Houthi leader Mohammed Haidarah said.
    The party of Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose loyalists in the military have been a major ally in the Houthi's advance in Yemen's south, also welcomed the pause in fighting.
    U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed clinched the deal after intensive discussions with Houthi leaders on Thursday.
    He told Reuters that the more thorny political discussions would wait until after the humanitarian work was done.
    "So far there has been no formal comment regarding the truce and the aggressors as you can see are continuing their attacks in a lot of governorates and a lot will depend on the commitment by the other parties, especially since there are many sides that are working to block this truce, notably, Al Qaeda. There is no side that can control or ensure their commitment," said Houthi leader Salh al Somat.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
Register