UN team arrives in Yemen to observe truce in Hudaida

The head of a United Nations advance team tasked with monitoring a ceasefire between the Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen's Hudaida has arrived in Yemen, UN and local officials said on Saturday.

Upon arriving at Aden airport, the team led by retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, met with officials from the Saudi-backed government, local officials said, and Cammaert's team is expected to continue to Sanaa where they will meet Houthi officials.

Cammaert will then travel to Hudaida where he will oversee the truce and troop withdrawal from the Red Port city and three ports. 

Cammaert's team will not be uniformed or armed, the UN has said, but it will provide support for the management of and inspections at the ports of Hudaida, Salif and Ras Issa; and strengthen the UN presence in the war-torn region.

The sides in Yemen's nearly four-year war agreed during UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden earlier this month to stop fighting in Hudaida city and its province and withdraw forces. 

The truce began on Tuesday but skirmishes continued on the outskirts of the city.

On Friday the UN Security Council unanimously approved the deployment –– for an initial 30 days –– of an advance monitoring team led by Cammaert.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric urged all parties "to abide by the commitments made in Stockholm.".

"We'll be deploying additional personnel in the coming days as we scale up to support and facilitate the implementation of the agreement," he said, stressing that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is insisting that monitors are deployed very quickly.

'World's worst humanitarian crisis'

The war between the Houthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi escalated in 2015, when he fled into Saudi exile and the coalition intervened.

Since then, the war has killed some 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, although human rights groups say the real death toll could be five times as high.

The conflict has also pushed 14 million people to the brink of famine in what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.