Photo: Hundreds of civilians fall everyday in Taiz city because of the shelling of Houthi rebels YOL

Switzerland 17/12/2015- On the third day of the UN sponsored negotiations for Yemen in Switzerland, the participants have reached an agreement which allows for a full and immediate resumption of humanitarian assistance to the city of Taizz.

The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, welcomed this agreement as “a major step forward that will ensure immediate action to alleviate the human suffering of the Yemeni people and to ensure the neutral and impartial character of humanitarian action.”

A large UN convoy, carrying essential humanitarian supplies, reached the most affected districts of the city of Taizz and will start distributing assistance to those in need in the coming days. It is expected that humanitarian assistance will also reach Hajja, Saada and other deprived Yemeni cities in the coming days.

The Special Envoy has congratulated the participants in the talks for this first important achievement and has encouraged them to work towards further agreements on measures that will allow for rapid, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian actors to reach people in need across all Yemeni governorates.

The consultations will continue in the next few days and seek to define a clear way forward with a special focus on specific areas:  the development of a sustainable national ceasefire and the release of prisoners and detainees, the withdrawal of forces and creation of interim security measures, the organised return of heavy weapons to the state, the restoration of State Control over Public Institutions and the resumption of their functions in addition to the resumption of an inclusive political dialogue.