Humanitarian Ceasefire to Be Called in Yemen Soon
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - All Yemeni parties involved in the first round of Geneva talks have agreed to request a humanitarian truce in Yemen during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, UN spokesman in Geneva Ahmad Fawzi said.
"The parties of the Yemeni interlocutors with the United Nations agreed to declare a humanitarian truce with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan," Fawzi said in a statement on Thursday.
He added that he expects the ceasefire call to come in the next few hours.
"The terrible and catastrophic crisis in Yemen requires the attention of 21 million people who are now in need of humanitarian assistance," Fawzi told Sputnik.
The UN-brokered peace talks in the Swiss city of Geneva kicked off on Monday, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for a two-month ceasefire to mark Ramadan.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
According to Yemen's Health Ministry, the airstrikes have killed more than 2,300 people, including 229 women and 411 children. More than 8,000 others have been also injured in the attacks, including 581 women and 766 children.
Saudi-led aerial strikes have targeted 61 hospitals and 13 ambulances.
The ministry also reports deterioration of health conditions in Yemen, saying some 20,000 people have caught malaria, with some infected children having died due to lack of medication.