HODEIDA: Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, 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.

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 Dec 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.

The Houthis began “the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeida port”, a rebel official told the Houthi-run Saba news agency. The rebels held a ceremony to mark the occasion, a correspondent reported.

The UN Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution authorising the deployment of observers to oversee a hard-won truce for Hodeida that was agreed by the Saudi-backed government and the rebels in Sweden this month.

Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert is heading a joint truce monitoring committee, which includes both government and rebel representatives, and chaired its first meeting this week.

The UN-led panel addressed “the first phase of the implementation of the agreement ... based on ceasefire, confidence building measures to deliver humanitarian assistance and redeployment”, a UN statement said.

It added that the panel would convene again on Jan 1 to discuss “detailed plans for full redeployment”.

The UN also said that a humanitarian convoy was expected later on Saturday to leave Hodeida port and travel along the main road that links it to the rebel-held capital Sanaa. Its destination was not immediately clear.

“As a confidence building measure, the parties have agreed to begin opening blocked humanitarian corridors, starting with the Hodeida-Sanaa road, followed by other routes, in a phased manner,” said the statement.

The truce has remained shaky, with the two sides accusing each other of violations.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2018