Yemeni forces ready to attack Houthis in key city of Hodeidah (2024)

Yemeni forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE were massing around the port city of Hodeidah preparing for an attack on the Houthi rebel stronghold, despite western calls for a ceasefire.

Sources linked to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthis for three years, said that 30,000 of its troops had gathered to the south and east of the city, home to about 600,000 people.

The troops include fighters from the Yemeni republican guard, a unit previously commanded by the son of the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed by Houthis in December after breaking their former alliance and forming ties with the Saudi-backed government.

The US and Britain are pressing both sides to return to UN-backed peace talks that broke down in September.

America, which backs the Yemeni government and Saudi-led operations, has called for an immediate halt to hostilities, saying Riyadh and the UAE were ready for a deal. Robert Palladino, a State Department spokesman, said: “The Houthis must cease missile and UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] strikes into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates immediately. As soon as this happens, the Saudi-led coalition must cease airstrikes in all populated areas.”

The Yemeni government has said it is ready to restart negotiations, which collapsed when rebel representatives failed to show up in Geneva.

The US demand for a new ceasefire was rejected today by Mohammed al-Bakhiiti, from the Houthis’ political wing, who told the Lebanese news channel Al-Manar that they “won’t be fooled by US remarks”. “We weren’t contacted over calls to halt the war in Yemen, even our opponents were surprised by US remarks,” he said. Al-Manar is linked to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which is close to Iran.

The Saudi-led campaign in Yemen has caused a humanitarian crisis, killing 10,000 civilians and leaving more than 22 million, three quarters of the population, reliant on aid. About 1.8 million children are malnourished, 400,000 of them so severely that their lives are in danger. A lack of clean drinking water has led to cholera outbreaks and the UN has warned it could face the worst famine in a century.

“Civilians in Yemen are not starving, they are being starved. Let it be known that the worst famine on our watch is wholly man-made by Yemen’s conflict parties and their international sponsors,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a UN adviser, said. “The way the war is waged has systemically choked civilians by making less food available and affordable to millions of people.”

Air attacks on the city have also intensified in recent weeks, with at least 5,000 families fleeing their homes since the beginning of June. At least ten people were killed in a bombing raid on a vegetable market nine days ago.

More than 70 per cent of Yemen’s imports come through Hodeidah’s port, which has been placed under sporadic embargo by Saudi-led forces, exacerbating the crisis.