Ismail Ahmed, UN Yemen Envoy, said in Geneva that the parties in Yemen’s conflict had stopped fighting under a ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday.
Ahmed said this was coming into effect shortly before the start of planned peace talks in Switzerland.
He said the airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised president, Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, stopped as the ceasefire went into force at midday local time (900 GMT).
UN Spokesman, Ahmed Fawzy, said negotiating teams representing Hadi’s government and the rival Houthi rebels and their allies had arrived for the talks, which would go on as long as necessary.
Meanwhile, residents in central and southern Yemen said in spite of the ceasefire, there were still shelling of three areas by the Houthis, who control the capital, Sana’a, and most of the north.
Provincial Government Spokesman, Abd-al-Salaam al-Izzi, said in the northern region of Harad, 31 people were killed in an overnight coalition air raid. (dpa/NAN)
