UNITED NATIONS (AP) – A new UN envoy to Yemen said on Friday that the poorest Arab nation “remains at war” and resuming talks to end the six-year-old conflict would not be difficult.
Hans Grundberg, a Swedish ambassador who took over the ministry four days ago as European Union ambassador to Yemen since 2019, told the UN Security Council that “there is no immediate victory” in the civil war in Yemen.
To determine the best way to move forward, he said, he plans to re-evaluate what has worked and what has not, and “listen to as many Yemeni men and women as possible.”
“The parties to the dispute have not discussed personal matters since 2016,” Grundberg said. “As a result, it is a long time before the opposition parties can negotiate peacefully with each other under the auspices of the UN on all legal issues, in good faith and without reasonable excuse.”
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014 when Iranian-backed militants in Houthi began seizing Sanaa’s capital and much of the northern part of the country, forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi-led coalition entered into a war in March 2015, with the support of the United States, in an attempt to restore Hadi power, and to throw its support behind its international-backed government. Despite the lengthy battle and the fighting on the ground, the war was severely disrupted and caused serious problems around the world. The US has stopped waging war.
The UN’s resolution to the conflict must include “equal participation of women,” Grundberg said.
Comparing the crisis in Yemen, he said since early 2020 the focus has been on the Houthi outrage in the state-run Marib state which has taken the lives of thousands of young people and left thousands of homeless people living in constant fear of violence and need to relocate. In the port city of Hodeida, “there has been a significant reduction in crime,” but violence in the southern states is “the most serious,” he said.
In southern Yemen, Grundberg says, there has been a spate of violence and protests and the economy has begun to decline. He stressed that the grievances and interests of the south should “take part” in establishing a way forward.
Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, deputy director general of the UN humanitarian agency, told the council that “the threat of famine has not ended in Yemen” but there has been an increase in donor spending over the past few months as the UN received more than $ 1.9 billion – 50% of all its requirements.
As a result, he said, the UN increased aid, reaching 12.8 million people in June – 3.3 million more than in May – and hunger was banned in the first eight months of the year.
Mudawi said the top event in Yemen will take place on September 22 at the annual UN General Assembly of international leaders supported by the European Union, Sweden and Switzerland.