Yemen’s two-week ceasefire ended without leading to a permanent truce. Earlier this month, the Saudi-UAE coalition fighting against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country, declared a ceasefire aiming to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The peace push came days after the United Nations called for a global ceasefire amid the pandemic. Yemen reported its first Covid-19 case earlier this month. Observers fear that the pandemic’s impact would be catastrophic, considering the country’s poor healthcare system.
The Houthis rejected the truce, and violence has continued in several provinces including Marib, a stronghold of the internationally-recognised government.
Sources familiar with the matter had expected an extension of the ceasefire until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. However, as the Houthis continued their attacks, the coalition did not extend it, the sources added.
On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that half of Yemen’s health facilities were not functioning and that this week 500 cholera cases were reported in 24 hours in one hospital in the capital, Sanaa.
The conflict in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, began when the Houthis overthrew the government of president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi from Sanaa in 2014.
A Saudi-led military coalition in 2015 intervened in a bid to restore the government. The war is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Yemen’s war has killed more than 100,000 people and left millions suffering from food and medical shortages. The UN has called the conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
