New deadly fights in a war that has lasted for seven years.

At least 65 fighters have been killed in the past 48 hours in new clashes between government and rebel forces in Marib province in northern Yemen, a military official said on Thursday.

The last bastion of power in the war-torn north of the country, Marib province has been the scene of violent clashes and the target of an offensive by Houthi rebels since February.

Fighting south of the city

"Government forces side, there have been 22 dead and 50 wounded, and Houthis side 43 dead in the last 48 hours" in the fighting south of the eponymous provincial capital, said the government official on condition of anonymity.

The Houthis for their part only very rarely report victims in their ranks.

The city has been surrounded for months

Since the capture of the capital Sanaa in 2014, rebels, close to Shiite Iran, have conquered most of the north of the country from the government, which has been supported since 2015 by a military coalition led by Sunni Saudi Arabia, large rival of Tehran.

The Houthis are primarily seeking to capture the provincial capital of Marib and have surrounded the city for months.

The fighting has claimed hundreds of lives since February.

Advancement of the Houthis

According to the military official, the fighting, which had waned in intensity in recent weeks, resumed with a vengeance two days ago with the launch by the rebels of attacks against government positions around the city.

Thanks to these attacks, the Houthis managed to advance in areas south of the city of Marib, despite Saudi airstrikes in support of loyalist troops on the ground, he said.

Most of the dead in the Houthi ranks in the past two days have perished in the strikes, military sources say.

In late June, more than 100 fighters perished in days of fighting in Marib, a key oil-rich area, where loyalist forces are backed by airstrikes from Saudi Arabia.

Calls for truce

Faced with population displacement and fears of an aggravated humanitarian disaster in areas near the fighting in the Marib region, calls for a truce have multiplied internationally.

The UN and the United States have so far unsuccessfully pursued diplomatic efforts to relaunch talks to end a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis. , according to the United Nations.

On another front, the Houthis periodically launch missiles and drones towards Saudi territory, targeting airports or oil sites.

They rejected a proposed ceasefire by the Saudis, demanding that the latter first lift their air and sea embargo on Yemen.

A new UN envoy for the country

These new fights in Marib took place a few days before the new UN envoy for Yemen, the Swede Hans Grundberg, took office after the departure of the British Martin Griffiths.

The latter drew up before the UN Security Council in mid-June a report of the failure of his efforts to put an end to the war in this poor country on the Arabian Peninsula, after a three-year mission.

World

In Yemen, a mysterious "pit of hell" fascinates geologists

World

Yemen: Fishermen make fortune thanks to sperm whale spawning

  • War

  • Saudi Arabia

  • Iran

  • Yemen

  • World