Brigadier General Mohamed Abdullah Saleh, commander of the Republican Guard forces, in Hodeidah, western Yemen, inaugurated a new housing project funded by the UAE to build housing units for 600 poor families from the city who were affected by the Houthi rebels attacks.

Despite the ongoing military confrontations between the Houthi rebels and the Republican Guard forces, the UAE has funded the construction of a number of housing projects, hospitals and schools in the city of Hodeidah and Mokha.

Last month, the United Nations started deploying cease-fire observers in Hodeidah, establishing five observation points near the military contact lines between the two warring parties.

The observation points are manned by liaison officers from both parties in accordance with a UN-sponsored cease-fire agreement reached in Stockholm in December 2018.

As the main Yemeni port city along the coast of the Red Sea, Hodeidah is the key lifeline entry of most Yemen's commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

The grinding war of more than four years has pushed over 20 million people to the verge of starvation.

The Iran-allied Houthi rebels control much of Hodeidah while the Saudi-backed government troops have advanced to its southeastern districts.

The cease-fire deal in Stockholm was seen as the first phase toward a comprehensive political solution to the civil war. YOL