SANAA: Rebels who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa have said they will have no further dealings with a U.N. envoy who has conducted months of shuttle diplomacy with the Saudi-backed government.

The head of the rebel-installed Supreme Political Council, Saleh al-Samad, accused the envoy of bias and said he would no longer be allowed entry to rebel-held areas.

“We say unanimously that the envoy is no longer welcome here,” Samad said in a speech late Monday.

“There will be no more contact with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and he is not welcome here.”

Samad said the decision was taken jointly by the Houthi rebels and their allies in the General People’s Congress of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The announcement comes after an abortive visit by the envoy to Sanaa last month in which he was mobbed by protesters and failed to secure any meetings with rebel representatives.

He had been trying to broker a cease-fire for the holy month of Ramadan which began on May 27.

Over 10,000 people have been killed since a Saudi-led coalition launched an intervention in March 2015 to prop up the government of Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi.

Along with Sanaa, the rebels still control most of the north and the Red Sea coastline, including the key port of Hudaida. The coalition has imposed an air and sea blockade of rebel-held territory and only U.N.-supervised deliveries of food and medicines are allowed, nearly all of them through Hudaida.

With some 17 million people facing dire food shortages, U.N. officials have warned of the risk of famine.

The country has also been hit by a cholera epidemic that has killed at least 681 people and the outbreak has yet to peak. World Health Organization figures show an increase in the death toll of nearly 50 percent since its last update on May 27.