11/30
The International Crisis Group published a report which called on US officials to take advantage of the leverage generated by the advancement of Senate Joint Resolution 54 to pressure the Saudi-led coalition to pause the fighting in al-Hudaydah and give peace talks a chance to succeed.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour concluded a visit to Yemen, demanding that “the warring parties to do “‘absolutely everything humanly possible’ to prevent renewed fighting in the port city of Al Hudaydah.”
12/2
The World Health Organization reported that the cholera outbreak in Yemen “is accelerating again with roughly 10,000 suspected cases now reported per week, double the average rate for the first eight months of 2018.”
UNICEF reported that to date, “more than 250,000 cases of cholera have been recorded in Yemen since the beginning of 2018, with 358 associated deaths.”
12/3
UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths arrived in San’a in order to escort the Houthi delegation to UN-sponsored peace talks taking place in Sweden.
BBC reported that “fifty wounded Houthi rebels have been flown from Yemen to neighboring Oman for treatment.” The Houthi leadership’s demand to evacuate these wounded was one of the steps that scuttled the last round of UN consultations.
12/4
The Yemeni government agreed to a large-scale prisoner swap with Houthi rebels as a “confidence building measure.” The deal is reported to cover “between 1,500 and 2,000 pro-government forces and between 1,000 and 1,500 Houthi rebels.”
The International Organization for Migration reports an expected “a 50 % year-on-year rise over 2017 in migrant arrivals to Yemen.” The report outlined this expected increase within the “ongoing conflict in Yemen and deadly perils along migration routes across the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.”
12/5
International Crisis Group consultant Peter Salisbury published a comprehensive Q&A outlining the current state of the “preliminary peace consultations on Yemen” which are scheduled to start in Stockholm on December 6th.
Abdul Malik al-Ajri, a senior Houthi leader, expressed that the Houthi delegation to preliminary peace talks in Sweden “will be calling for the land, sea and air blockade imposed on Yemen [by Saudi Arabia and the UAE] to be lifted, and for restrictions on goods entering the country to be lifted.”
12/6
UN-sponsored peace talks began in Sweden, attended by delegations from the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels. UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths reported that these talks mark “an important beginning to see warring parties sit together and talk — a conversation that requires both sides to suspend their belief in the possibility of a military victory.”
The International Rescue Committee reported that “240,000 Yemeni civilians are living in famine condition and 9.8 million are on the brink of famine, a shocking increase of 42% increase since 2017.”
12/7
A devastating new report by the Associated Press details the brutal treament Houthi forces inflict upon the thousands of people they have unlawfully detained in Yemen. “The AP spoke with 23 people who said they survived or witnessed torture in Houthi detention sites, as well as with eight relatives of detainees, five lawyers and rights activists, and three security officers involved in prisoner swaps who said they saw marks of torture on inmates.”