While Houthi militias in Yemen objected to and fought against the roadmap presented by the United Nations’ redeployment committee for Hodeidah, Yemeni government forces worked on facilitating the journey for the international missions to reach the Red Sea wheat silos.
Representatives of the UN food agency briefly visited the Red Sea mills on Tuesday, but were unable to determine if the wheat was unspoiled to feed starving Yemenis, a UN spokesman said.
"A team from the World Food Program (WFP) visited the Red Sea mills," confirmed Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general. "This visit was the first by WFP to these vital wheat stores since September of 2018."
UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths had arrived in Sanaa on Tuesday, the third visit within a month, as part of his efforts to not only salvage the UN-brokered Stockholm agreement, signed last December, but to also push the Houthi leadership to comply with the redeployment plan proposed by Danish former general Michael Lollesgaard, the new head of the UN observer mission in Yemen..
Yemeni government sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the militias have refused for the third straight day to pull out their forces from the Salif and Ras Issa ports.
Ordering militants to evacuate the premises of Hodeidah’s three ports constitutes phase one of redeployment.
The refusal contradicted with Houthi pledges to cooperate with Lollesgaard’s redeployment plan.
Lollesgaard had taken over from Patrick Cammaert, another former general who led the UN oversight of a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah that went into effect in December.
Government sources had hinted that Griffiths was seeking to meet with the Houthi leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, to pressure him to comply with the international agreement on Yemen.
Sources also noted that Lollesgaard will likely visit Sanaa to meet with Griffiths and review fresh snags stalling the implementation of phase one of the redeployment plan.
