UN Ready to Launch Delayed Yemen Peace Talks

The United Nations expects peace talks for Yemen to begin Thursday after being delayed when opposition delegations stayed home complaining of cease-fire violations by pro-government forces.

The negotiations are being held in Kuwait and were due to start on Monday.  Members of the Houthi rebels and the party of former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, which backs the rebels, left Yemen on Wednesday after getting assurances the cease-fire would be respected.

U.N. envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has said the process will focus on the withdrawal of militias and armed groups, the handover of heavy weapons to the government, interim security arrangements, the restoration of state institutions and the creation of a special committee on prisoners and detainees.

• The Houthis have controlled Yemen's capital, Sana'a, since seizing it in September 2014.  Six months later, they marched south in an offensive that led to their capture of the port city of Aden and sending President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia.

Hadi and his government have since returned to Aden, aided by a year-long bombing campaign by a Saudi-led coalition that helped push back the Houthis. 

The conflict has left more than 6,400 people dead and millions of people in need of humanitarian aid.
[voanews.com]
21/4/16
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