Ceasefire, Peace Talks in Yemen

After over a year of civil war in Yemen, the country’s warring factions reached a temporary ceasefire on April 10 in advance of peace talks between the Yemeni government and Houthi forces. The ceasefire is a product of continued diplomatic negotiations between the Yemeni government; their ally in the war, Saudi Arabia; and the Houthi rebels who now nominally control most of western Yemen. Recent reports suggest that negotiations between Houthi and Saudi forces have already led to decreased violence near the Saudi-Yemeni border. In a promising sign leading up to the peace talks, the Houthis have also exchanged nine Saudi prisoners for 109 of their own.

Despite the ceasefire, sporadic violence has continued in various areas, including a suicide bombing in the government controlled port of Aden that killed eight people. Even so, fighting has largely halted across the country since the implementation of the ceasefire.

International actors have assigned increasing importance to the success of this round of peace talks. Although the war has mainly been fought between government and Houthi forces, the chaos has allowed a local branch of Al-Qaeda to take control of a large swath of territory in central Yemen. If peace talks fail and fighting resumes, this branch of Al-Qaeda will continue to abuse the power-vacuum left in the wake of the conflict and expand its control of territory at the expense of both other parties.

International actors have universally praised the ceasefire and peace talks, and the Saudi government itself has expressed optimism about the upcoming round of formal peace talks that will begin on April 18 in Kuwait.