As if a war isn’t enough, Yemenis are being battered by nature too. The poor country was hit with the strongest cyclone in its recorded history, dumping more than a year’s worth of rain in just 24 hours on its southern coast. Cyclone Chapala slammed into the country’s central southern coast on Tuesday with 85 mph winds, causing more damage and misery to a people whose lives have already been reduced to rubble. The cyclone is estimated to have produced up to 8 inches of rain in one day for some areas in a country where four inches of rain per year is the average. In Yemen’s recorded history, no storm has come close to those wind and rainfall numbers. Television images showed large areas in waters and people struggling to battle the calamity.
Yemen is already in the middle of a humanitarian catastrophe created by the ongoing conflict between Shia Houthi rebels and the internationally recognised, Gulf-backed Sunni government. On Tuesday, officials said fighting between Shia rebels and their opponents killed over 33 people in Taez which is the country’s third-largest city. Also, 21 Houthis died in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
Now all eyes are on the peace talks planned later this month. The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday that he was optimistic a new round of peace talks will start this month after many weeks of preparation. The UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has been making the preparations for the talks between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sana’a last year. “We are optimistic. We are hopeful that the talks will take place,” Saudi ambassador Abdallah Al Mouallimi said at a meeting with leaders of the Yemeni community in the United States.
It’s time for Houthis to accept responsibility for the current stalemate and chaos and retreat from the capital, paving the way for the comeback of the ousted government which is still the internationally recognised government. Houthis will never be able to rule the country, which is against the international law. Mouallimi said that Houthi rebels had sought to sidestep demands in a UN resolution that they withdraw from territory seized in their campaign, but that they had recently backed down and were ready to negotiate a pullback. That’s a good sign and both sides need to work for a solution. The agenda for the peace talks is likely to be finalized this week and that the UN envoy will travel to New York to announce the talks next week.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has been identified by the United Nations as one of the world’s worst, with 80 percent of the country’s population on the brink of famine.
As if a war isn’t enough, Yemenis are being battered by nature too. The poor country was hit with the strongest cyclone in its recorded history, dumping more than a year’s worth of rain in just 24 hours on its southern coast. Cyclone Chapala slammed into the country’s central southern coast on Tuesday with 85 mph winds, causing more damage and misery to a people whose lives have already been reduced to rubble. The cyclone is estimated to have produced up to 8 inches of rain in one day for some areas in a country where four inches of rain per year is the average. In Yemen’s recorded history, no storm has come close to those wind and rainfall numbers. Television images showed large areas in waters and people struggling to battle the calamity.
Yemen is already in the middle of a humanitarian catastrophe created by the ongoing conflict between Shia Houthi rebels and the internationally recognised, Gulf-backed Sunni government. On Tuesday, officials said fighting between Shia rebels and their opponents killed over 33 people in Taez which is the country’s third-largest city. Also, 21 Houthis died in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
Now all eyes are on the peace talks planned later this month. The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday that he was optimistic a new round of peace talks will start this month after many weeks of preparation. The UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has been making the preparations for the talks between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sana’a last year. “We are optimistic. We are hopeful that the talks will take place,” Saudi ambassador Abdallah Al Mouallimi said at a meeting with leaders of the Yemeni community in the United States.
It’s time for Houthis to accept responsibility for the current stalemate and chaos and retreat from the capital, paving the way for the comeback of the ousted government which is still the internationally recognised government. Houthis will never be able to rule the country, which is against the international law. Mouallimi said that Houthi rebels had sought to sidestep demands in a UN resolution that they withdraw from territory seized in their campaign, but that they had recently backed down and were ready to negotiate a pullback. That’s a good sign and both sides need to work for a solution. The agenda for the peace talks is likely to be finalized this week and that the UN envoy will travel to New York to announce the talks next week.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has been identified by the United Nations as one of the world’s worst, with 80 percent of the country’s population on the brink of famine.
