The long-delayed redeployment is seen as a key first step toward ending the civil war, which erupted in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition joined the war the following year on the side of the government. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and the war has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The government has dismissed the Houthi withdrawal, with Information Minister Moammer al-Iryani accusing the rebels of handing the ports off to “militia leaders in civilian clothes.”Both sides agreed in December to withdraw from Hodeida, which handles 70 per cent of Yemen’s food imports and humanitarian aid. But the U.N.-brokered deal was vague on who would control Hodeida’s strategic ports after the withdrawal, saying only that a “local force” would take over.

Source: National Post May 12, 2019 12:33 UTC