By Sarah Kaufman
The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels agreed on a seven-day ceasefire starting on Tuesday as they kicked off peace talks in Switzerland backed by the United Nations.
Members of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government, which is supported by a Saudi-led coalition, and representatives of the anti-government Houthi rebels were scheduled to meet a special envoy from the U.N. for talks Tuesday morning, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva told The New York Times.
Read More: ISIS Claims Responsibility For Killing Yemen Governor In A Car BombThe ceasefire and talks signaled hope that violence in a country ravaged by civil war would de-escalate, and that the country's population of more than 24 million people could start thinking about piecing their lives back together. "Making peace is a fundamental requirement to rebuild Yemen, rehabilitate the basic infrastructure, address the consequences of the war, provide the necessary environment to normalize life in all governorates, and resume economic activity," said the U.N.'s special envoy to Yemen and mediator of the talks, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Since the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government began an intensive airstrike campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis in March, the war in Yemen has left more than 2,600 civilians dead, according to U.N. estimates. Two-thirds of civilian deaths by the end of June were caused by airstrikes, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published in September. By mid-December, about 6,000 people in total had died in Yemen's fighting.
Two other ceasefires, one in May and one in July, failed. In both cases, both sides blamed the other for violating the agreement. The World Health Organization said on Monday it hopes the current ceasefire will allow 19 ready-to-go supply trucks to travel into the Yemeni cities of Sanaa and Aden to deliver humanitarian aid.
Coalition jets conducted two raids on Monday near the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border, killing at least 15 people and injuring 20 more, including two senior coalition officials, Reuters reported. The attacks delayed the start of the ceasefire on Tuesday morning, although it ultimately went into effect.
If the ceasefire holds for a week, the World Health Organization could deliver 165 tons of supplies from Djibouti across the Red Sea to civilians in dire need, a representative of the organization has said.
Human rights groups have scrutinized the Saudi-led coalition for hitting civilians with airstrikes. The international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders has blamed the coalition for two attacks on two of its facilities in Yemen. One strike took place in October on its health center in the northern part of the country, wounding nine people, and another one occurred in early December on a mobile clinic in the southern city of Taiz.
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