The leader of the Houthi rebels in northern Yemen last night said he would accept the government's conditional ceasefire in a bloody insurgency that has left hundreds of thousands homeless and threatened to destabilise the region.
In an audio recording posted on the internet, Abdul-Malik al Houthi said he would accept the five conditions if attacks against the rebels ended.
"In order to avoid ... the annihilation of civilians we reiterate our acceptance of the five points" for a ceasefire, Mr al Houthi said. "The ball is now in the other party's court."
Among Sana'a's demands are the withdrawal of rebels from official buildings, the reopening of roads in the north, the return of weapons seized from security services and the release of all military and civilian prisoners.
Last September, the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the government was ready to fight the rebels for "years", although he also said hostilities could end if the Houthis themselves agree to a ceasefire.
Mr al Houthi spoke at a celebration marking the anniversary of the 1962 revolution that overthrew the Zaidi Shiite imamate and established the republic, and after two separate ceasefires lasted just a few hours before fighting erupted again.
The government accuses the Houthis, who have been fighting an intermittent insurgency for the past five years, of wanting to restore the Zaidi imamate. The rebels deny that and say they are fighting social, economic and religious marginalisation by the Sana'a authorities.
A possible ceasefire would come as a relief to the Yemeni government which is also facing a secessionist movement in the south and has vowed to tackle al Qa'eda militants based in the country,
The latest round of fighting with the Houthis broke out on August 11, when the military launched "Operation Scorched Earth," an all-out assault against the rebels.
Saudi Arabia joined the fighting on November 4, a day after Houthi forces killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside Saudi territory.
The Saudi government said its operations were purely defensive and meant to repel the infiltrators from the Saudi villages they had captured. The rebels, however, accused the Saudis of taking their fight into Yemen and they have repeatedly accused the Saudi army of backing Yemeni troops. The rebels announced they had withdrawn from Saudi land on January 25. Riyadh said they had been forced out.
The Yemeni government repeatedly accused the Houthis of being supported by Shiite Iran, the main regional rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, and in October announced it had captured five Iranians attempting to smuggle a boatload of weapons to them, but no hard evidence was ever provided. Iran also denied it was providing military support to the rebels.
The Zaidis, whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but the majority community in the north. President Saleh is himself a Zaidi.
The UN refugee agency warned on Friday that a humanitarian crisis in north Yemen was getting worse as the number of people displaced by the conflict has grown to about 250,000. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Geneva the fighting has moved gradually from Sa'ada city farther north-west, while more people were fleeing the province because they could not sustain themselves.
"The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is deepening and we now estimate that 250,000 civilians have been displaced since the country's internal conflict flared in 2004," Andrej Mahecic, a UNHCR spokesman, said.
"This represents a more than doubling of the number displaced as of August 2009 when the latest round of fighting erupted," he told journalists. The tally of displaced from the area, which near the border with Saudi Arabia, has grown by about one fifth in just over two weeks.
About 12,000 of them have sought shelter in the capital Sana'a.
The international Red Cross warned on Monday that the worsening impact of the conflict was largely neglected.
@Email:foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters
SERIES INFO
Cricket World Cup League Two
Nepal, Oman, United States tri-series
Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu
Fixtures
Wednesday February 5, Oman v Nepal
Thursday, February 6, Oman v United States
Saturday, February 8, United States v Nepal
Sunday, February 9, Oman v Nepal
Tuesday, February 11, Oman v United States
Wednesday, February 12, United States v Nepal
Table
The top three sides advance to the 2022 World Cup Qualifier.
The bottom four sides are relegated to the 2022 World Cup playoff
1 United States 8 6 2 0 0 12 0.412
2 Scotland 8 4 3 0 1 9 0.139
3 Namibia 7 4 3 0 0 8 0.008
4 Oman 6 4 2 0 0 8 -0.139
5 UAE 7 3 3 0 1 7 -0.004
6 Nepal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 PNG 8 0 8 0 0 0 -0.458
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Mobile phone packages comparison
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
ARGENTINA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Franco Armani, Agustin Marchesin, Esteban Andrada
Defenders: Juan Foyth, Nicolas Otamendi, German Pezzella, Nicolas Tagliafico, Ramiro Funes Mori, Renzo Saravia, Marcos Acuna, Milton Casco
Midfielders: Leandro Paredes, Guido Rodriguez, Giovani Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Roberto Pereyra, Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Di Maria
Forwards: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Lautaro Martinez, Paulo Dybala, Matias Suarez
FINAL LEADERBOARD
1. Jordan Spieth (USA) 65 69 65 69 - 12-under-par
2. Matt Kuchar (USA) 65 71 66 69 - 9-under
3. Li Haotong (CHN) 69 73 69 63 - 6-under
T4. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 71 68 69 67 - 5-under
T4. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 67 73 67 68 - 5-under
T6. Marc Leishman (AUS) 69 76 66 65 - 4-under
T6. Matthew Southgate (ENG) 72 72 67 65 - 4-under
T6. Brooks Koepka (USA) 65 72 68 71 - 4-under
T6. Branden Grace (RSA) 70 74 62 70 - 4-under
T6. Alexander Noren (SWE) 68 72 69 67 - 4-under
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5