UN announces weeklong humanitarian truce in Yemen

The United Nations has announced an unconditional weeklong humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen, where more than 80 percent of the country's 25 million people are believed to be in need of some form of emergency aid.

"The secretary-general looks forward to the commitments of all parties to the conflict in Yemen to an unconditional humanitarian pause to start on Friday, 10 July at 23:59 until the end of Ramadan," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

“We feel we have the expressions necessary by all parties to announce the start of this pause on Friday,” said Dujarric.

Relief agencies say the fighting and a near-blockade imposed by an alliance of Arab states, aimed at stopping weapons deliveries to the Houthis, have caused a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.

Ismail Cheikh Ahmed, a special envoy for Yemen, earlier held talks with exiled President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on a truce to last until after the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is expected to start on July 17.

Hadi's government told the U.N. on Wednesday it would agree to a humanitarian truce provided key guarantees were met, government spokesman Rajeh Badi told Reuters by phone.

These included a release of prisoners, including the defense minister, by the Houthis, and their withdrawal from four southern and eastern provinces where they are fighting local militias.

Saudi Arabia and an Arab coalition have been bombing the Houthis and their allies in Yemen's army in an effort to restore Hadi and bolster armed opponents of the Houthis.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthi movement, which views its takeover of Sanaa last September, and of much of the Arabian Peninsula country since, as a revolution against a corrupt government backed by the West.

The group has previously welcomed any cease-fire.

The Houthis have yet to accept a U.N. Security Council Resolution passed in April that recognizes Hadi as the legitimate president and calls on them to quit seized land.

Al Jazeera and Reuters