ANSD : Arab coalition sends thousands of troops to Hudaida

SAT 27 - 4 - 2024

Date: Oct 31, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Arab coalition sends thousands of troops to Hudaida

ADEN/PARIS: The Arab military coalition in Yemen has sent more than 10,000 new troops toward a vital rebel-held port city ahead of a new assault, Yemeni government officials said Tuesday. The pro-government coalition deployed the reinforcements to the Red Sea coast ahead of a new offensive on Hudaida “within days,” a military official told AFP.

He said they would also “secure areas liberated” from the Iran-linked Houthi rebels, and forces from Sudan, part of the coalition, had moved in to “secure” areas around the city.

Houthi rebels have for the past 10 days been stationing fighters on building rooftops in Hudaida government military officials told AFP.

The adjacent port is the entry point for over 70 percent of imports to the impoverished country, which is teetering on the edge of famine.

More than 22 million Yemenis three quarters of the population are in need of humanitarian assistance.

People struggling to survive are also confronted with a collapsed economy, leaving government clerks without pay and state institutions practically crippled.

The newly appointed Yemeni prime minister said Tuesday the government was committed to improving the country’s economic situation.

The Yemeni riyal has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government in its fight against the Houthi rebels.

A Saudi oil tanker carrying the first batch of petroleum products worth $60 million arrived at Yemen’s Aden port Monday, to help power electricity stations in “liberated provinces” and prop up the country’s sagging economy, officials said. The coalition has been waging an aerial bombing campaign in Yemen aimed at pushing the Houthis back, but the rebels still hold Hudaida and the capital Sanaa.

Last week, coalition strikes in the province killed dozens of civilians, the U.N. said, as the Houthis blamed aerial bombardment by the coalition.

The war has left almost 10,000 people dead since the coalition intervened and sparked what the U.N. has labeled the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

France’s Defense Minister Florence Parly said Tuesday that the war in Yemen must stop, toughening Paris’ stance as photographs of starving children trigger outrage around the world.

“This military situation is an effective dead end so this war must stop. That’s a priority,” Parly told BFM television and RMC radio.

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