News & Events

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels in Yemen began a unilateral cease-fire on Wednesday, saying it hoped to pave the way toward ending a seven-year war that has shaken the security of the Persian Gulf and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Gulf Arab states are gathering for a summit on Tuesday on the war in Yemen that the country’s Houthi rebels are boycotting because its venue is in Saudi Arabia, their adversary in the devastating conflict.

Bahrain, Russia and other members of the UN human rights council have pushed through a vote to shut down the body’s war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for western states who sought to keep the mission going.

The new UN special envoy to Yemen has been urged to broaden negotiations to end the country’s seven-year civil war and include the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council and other factions.

The Trump administration has made an 11th-hour decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation in a move that is likely to severely worsen the war-torn country’s humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi Arabian-backed government in Yemen has warned of a catastrophe if the country’s powerful separatist movement forges ahead with its declaration of self-rule over the key port city of Aden and other southern provinces.

Britain, the US and France may be complicit in war crimes in Yemen by arming and providing support to a Saudi-led coalition that starves civilians as a war tactic, a United Nations report has said.

The United Nations security council has agreed to the deployment of UN monitors to observe the implementation of a ceasefire in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.