A total of 14 individuals were either dead or wounded due to clashes between the Yemeni army and the Houthi group in the Marib governorate, northeast of Yemen.
A Yemeni military source informed Sputnik that “clashes erupted between a force from the Yemeni army and armed members of the Houthis in the Bilq front, south of Marib, accompanied by mutual artillery shelling.”
The source added that “the clashes, which lasted for hours between the two sides, resulted in the killing of two soldiers and the injury of 4 others, while 8 Houthi militants were killed and several others wounded.”
These clashes come after a relative calm in the battlefronts in the Marib governorate between the Houthis and the Yemeni army.
However, on January 14th of last year, an officer and a soldier from the army forces were killed due to a drone attack attributed to the group on a military site in the Hareeb directorate, south of Marib.
The new escalation in the field came after days of urging by the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, during a session of the UN Security Council, for the conflict parties in Yemen to exercise restraint and work towards de-escalation to protect the progress made regarding the peace process in Yemen.
Grundberg emphasized “the continuation of clashes and movements of forces in Hodeidah, Lahij, Marib, Saada, Shabwa, and Taiz, and the parties’ open threats to return to war.”
Yemen has been experiencing a fragile truce since the UN announced on October 2nd, 2022, that the Yemeni government and the Houthi group had not reached an agreement to extend and expand the ceasefire, which lasted for 6 months.
For the ninth consecutive year, Yemen has been plagued by an ongoing power struggle between the internationally recognized government and the Houthi group, with its repercussions affecting various aspects.
This conflict has caused a humanitarian crisis described by the UN as the worst in the world.
The Houthi group has been in control of the majority of the central and northern Yemeni provinces, including the capital Sanaa, since September 2014.
In response, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations on March 26th, 2015, in support of the Yemeni army to reclaim those areas from the grip of the group.
