Sana'a (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Peace talks between the factions of the conflict in Yemen could probably begin in early December in Sweden according to US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, confirming the growing pressure from Western governments for a ceasefire and a resumption of dialogue to end a bloody war [according to experts a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran] that has lasted for over three years.
The UN special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that the government front and the Shiite Houthi rebels guaranteed the "firm intention" to participate in the peace talks. The goal for the UN High Representative is to get the parties to sit around a negotiating table by the end of the year.
Mattis is more optimistic, saying that "it is very likely" that the peace talks will start "by early December" and "we will see both the Houthi rebels and the UN-recognized government". A previous attempt to bring the two fronts together in September in Geneva failed after three days of unnecessary waiting for the arrival of the Shiite rebel delegation.
The dramatic scale of the conflict between government forces supported by Saudi and Houthi (pro-Iranian) rebels is contained in the figures: according to official estimates from March 2015 to today there have been over 10 thousand deaths and at least 55 thousand injured. In fact, some independent bodies set the toll (between January 2016 and end of July 2018) at around 50,000 deaths. Given that it only concerns the combatants in the field, not the so-called "indirect victims" (civilians) for malnutrition or cholera.
Children are the primary victims, dying under bombs or from extreme malnutrition: according to estimates released by Save the Children, at least 85 thousand children under the age of five have died since the beginning of the conflict due to lack of food and drinking water. Last month, UN experts said that at least 14 million people are at risk of starvation.
