Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeidah, the country’s key aid lifeline, under an agreement reached in Sweden earlier this month, a UN official said on Saturday.
The official said the Houthi rebels began to pull back from the Red Sea port at midnight on Friday.
First phase
The Houthis began “the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeidah port”, a rebel official told the Houthi-run Saba news agency.
The rebel withdrawal from the port, which is the point of entry for food aid to some 14 million Yemenis UN agencies say are on the brink of famine, is a key part of a ceasefire that went into effect on December 18.
Pro-government forces are also supposed to pull back from parts of the city they recaptured in an offensive they launched with the backing of a Saudi-led coalition on June 13.
