U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon pressed on 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.
Mr. Ban, who met in Geneva with some of the delegations involved in the talks, said he had “emphasised 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,” Mr. Ban told reporters. He called for the warring factions to go further and agree on local ceasefires, withdrawing armed groups from cities.
Yemen’s conflict pits exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi against the Houthis, who seized the capital, Sana’a, in 2014 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.
