Date: Mar 13, 2019 Source: The Daily Star UN Security Council urges Yemen parties to implement peace deal 22 civilians killed, including children, in north Yemen Reuters ADEN: The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council urged Yemen's warring parties Tuesday to implement a peace deal in the port city of Hodeida, a move they hope will lead to an end of the four-year-old conflict. The Chinese, French, Russian, British and U.S. ambassadors to Yemen said in a statement they were "extremely concerned" that the agreement reached in Stockholm in December had not been implemented. The Houthi group and the Saudi-backed government agreed on a cease-fire and troop withdrawal in Hodeida, an exchange of prisoners, and the reopening of humanitarian corridors to help millions of starving Yemenis, with international monitors to oversee things. "We ... urge both parties to begin implementation of the proposal in good faith without further delay and without seeking to exploit the redeployments by the other side," they said. "We call on all sides to ensure the U.N. monitoring mission can carry out its work safely and without interference." The Stockholm agreement stalled with each side worrying the other would take advantage of the withdrawal to gain ground. The formation of a local authority to take control of Hodeida after the troop withdrawal, agreed in the truce deal, also remains a sticking point. The truce in Hodeida came into force on Dec. 18 and has largely held but violence has escalated in other regions. Air strikes by the Arab coalition killed at least 22 civilians, including women and children, in a village in northern Yemen this week, the United Nations said. Twenty-two civilians killed, including children, in north Yemen: UN Reuters DUBAI: Airstrikes by the Arab coalition killed at least 22 civilians, including women and children, this week in a village in northern Yemen, the United Nations said. Medical sources quoted by the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen said late Monday that the attacks in Kushar district, in Hajja Province, killed 10 women and 12 children and wounded 30 people, including 14 under the age of 18. "Many of the injured children have been sent to hospitals in Abs district and in Sanaa for treatment and several require possible evacuation to survive," the U.N. Coordinator in the country, Lise Grande, said in a statement. Tens of thousands of people have died in a four-year war that pits the Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Yemen's Saudi-backed government. Rights groups and the United Nations have criticized the Arab coalition for airstrikes that have often hit civilians, although the alliance denies doing so intentionally. A coalition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for a comment, but Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV said the Houthis were behind the attack. Kushar had seen sporadic clashes in recent weeks apparently caused by shifting loyalties of local tribes in the complex war. A U.N. statement said on Tuesday that clashes broke out between the Houthis and the Hajour tribesmen in late January and fighting intensified in March with the start of airstrikes. The International Crisis Group said in a note this week that the Houthis accuse the Hajour tribesmen of accepting arms and support from Saudi Arabia. The Arab coalition intervened in Yemen's war in 2015 on the side of the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi which was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in 2014. The Houthis, who say their revolution is against corruption, control Sanaa and most urban centers. Hadi's government is based in the southern port of Aden and holds some coastal towns. The war has displaced more than two million and driven the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country to the verge of famine. Western nations, many of which supply arms and intelligence to the coalition, have pressed for an end to the conflict, largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.