SANAA, Yemen – The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen on Saturday announced a five-day cease-fire. The cease-fire is to start at midnight Sunday local time to allow the delivery and distribution of aid to civilians in Yemen, the Saudi Press Agency said.
The cease-fire was called in response to a request from exiled Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the coalition said in a statement.
The Saudi alliance backing Hadi said it would halt military operations during the five days, but warned it would respond to any violation from the Houthi rebels and allied military units.
A Houthi official declined to comment on the cease-fire.
The Houthis, from Yemen’s far north, control large parts of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.
Earlier this month, a UN-brokered truce failed to hold in Yemen, one of the Arab world’s most impoverished countries.
The United Nations says 12.9 million Yemenis – about half the country’s population – need food and other aid.
Yemen suffered from severe food shortages even before the Houthis’ advance on the southern city of Aden in late March, which prompted the Sunni coalition led by Saudi Arabia to start an air campaign against the mostly Shiite rebels.
At least 1,670 civilians are among the more than 3,000 people killed in the conflict since the end of March, according to the United Nations.
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