Yemen government accuses rebels of 'ploy' over ports pullout
Saleef port
A senior pro-government official accused Yemen's Huthi rebels of faking an announced pullout from three strategic ports in Hodeida province on Saturday.
"The Huthis are staging a new ploy by handing over the ports of Hodeida, Saleef and Ras Issa to themselves without any monitoring by the United Nations and the government side," provincial governor Al-Hasan Taher told AFP.
Yemeni rebels said they were set to begin a unilateral withdrawal from the lifeline port of Hodeida on Saturday in a bid to kickstart implementation of a December truce brokered by the UN.
The head of the rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed al-Huthi, said fighters would start pulling back at 10 am.
Hodeida is the main entry point for the bulk of Yemen's imports and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions of civilians who have been pushed to the brink of famine by more than four years of devastating conflict.