Ceasefire in Yemen broken just minutes after going into effect

(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images)

published December 18, 2018

Clashes broke out in the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah just minutes after a ceasefire took effect at midnight Tuesday.

Hudaydah is a port city 90 miles east of the capital of Sanaa. Houthi rebels took control of Hudaydah in late 2014, and since June, the city has been under assault by the Saudi-led coalition that supports the government, BBC News reports. The ceasefire was agreed to last Thursday in Sweden during talks sponsored by the United Nations, but was delayed when fighting broke out on Friday.

Yemen's civil war has been raging for almost four years. More than 22 million Yemenis need aid, and Hudaydah is a crucial entrance point for food, medicine, and other supplies. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 16 million Yemenis do not have safe water to drink, 25 percent of children are not attending school, and two million people have been displaced from their homes.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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