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A30 world news
Diahuebs 31 Maart 2022

Saudi-offered, rebel-rejected cease-fire starts in Yemen war

more severe than the war itself,” he delegates success in their talks.
wrote on Twitter early Wednesday.
The summit is expected to continue
The United Nations and others had through April 7.
been pushing the warring sides to
reach a truce for Ramadan, as has Yemen’s war began in Septem-
tenuously occurred in the past. Ra- ber 2014, when the Houthis swept
madan is likely to start this weekend, into the capital, Sanaa, from their
depending on the sighting of the new northwestern stronghold in the
crescent moon. Arab world’s poorest country. The
Houthis then pushed into exile the
The GCC, whose members are Bah- government of President Abed Rab-
rain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi bo Mansour Hadi, elected in 2012 as
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the sole candidate after the long rule
began the talks Tuesday in Riyadh. of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
On Wednesday, Saudi state television
aired an open portion of the discus- A Saudi-led coalition, including the
sions live. UAE, entered the war in March 2015
(AP) — A Saudi-led coalition because the Iran-backed rebels are to try and restore Hadi’s government
battling rebels who hold Yemen’s skipping an ongoing summit over GCC Secretary-General Nayef al- to power. But the war stretched into
capital began a unilateral cease- the war in Saudi Arabia, called by Hajraf welcomed the Yemeni del- long bloody years, pushing Yemen to
fire Wednesday in the yearslong the Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation egations to Riyadh, hailing the talks the brink of famine.
war, even as the insurgents said Council, because it’s taking place on in his speech as a “breakthrough to
they rejected the proposal. their adversary’s territory. move Sanaa from war to peace.” More than 150,000 people have been
killed in the warfare, according to the
The Saudi-proposed pause in fight- Within hours, Houthi official Mo- “The path to security and peace in Armed Conflict Location and Event
ing began at 6 a.m. ahead of the holy hammed al-Bukaiti rejected the offer Yemen is not impossible, even if the Data Project. Those include both
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. over the continuing closure of Sanaa’s challenges are great,” al-Hajraf told fighters and civilians; the most recent
Several similar efforts have failed, and airport and restrictions on the coun- the vast hall of officials and diplomats. figure for the civilian death toll in Ye-
there was no immediate independent try’s ports by the Saudi-led coalition. “The success of the Yemeni consulta- men’s conflict stands at 14,500.
confirmation on whether hostilities tions is not an option, but a duty.”
paused between Saudi-led forces and “If the blockade is not lifted, the dec- Saudi airstrikes have killed hundreds
Yemen’s Houthi rebels. laration of the coalition of aggression The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, of civilians. The Houthis have used
to stop its military operations will be Hans Grundberg, called the Saudi- child soldiers and indiscriminately
The cease-fire announcement late meaningless because the suffering of led coalition’s cease-fire offer “a step laid landmines across the country.
Tuesday had raised immediate doubts Yemenis as a result of the blockade is in the right direction” and wished the

For climate migrants in Bangladesh, town offers new life

(AP) — The 29-year-old whom moved from villages there as an example of how a million climate migrants refugees because of sea level
Monira Khatun was dev- near the Sundarbans forest, climate refugees could trans- each,” said Huq. “Thus we rise, river erosion, cyclonic
astated after her husband the world’s largest mangrove form their life through new can offer alternatives to at storms and intrusion of sa-
abandoned her suddenly. forest which straddles the opportunities, through a least 10 million climate mi- line water. The World Bank
She returned to her father border of Bangladesh and In- new approach of adaptation,” grants over next one decade.” in a new report said last year
only to face another blow: dia and harbors endangered said Huq, whose institute that Bangladesh will have
He died soon after, leaving Bengal tigers. conducts environmental re- Climate scientists say low-ly- more than 19 million internal
her to shoulder three oth- search. ing Bangladesh is extremely climate refugees by 2050, al-
er family members’ care. Being forced by climate vulnerable to the impacts of most half the projected num-
Without any work, she was change to move, within bor- “Mongla has offered new op- climate change and millions ber for the entire South Asia
worried about how she ders or beyond, is a growing portunities to them. With its are at the risk of being dis- region.
would feed them. reality expected to acceler- seaport and an export pro- placed — becoming climate
ate in the decades ahead. cessing zone and climate-re-
“I lost everything. There was Over the next 30 years, 143 silient infrastructure, Mongla
darkness all around,” Khatun million people are likely to town has become a different
said. “My parents’ home was be uprooted by rising seas, story,” Huq said.
gone to the river for erosion, drought, searing tempera-
we had no land to cultivate.” tures and other climate ca- “Now, we expect to repli-
tastrophes, according to an cate the Mongla model to at
She ended up working at a Intergovernmental Panel least two dozen other coastal
factory in a special economic on Climate Change report towns across Bangladesh as
zone that employs thousands published last month by the safe home for climate refu-
of climate refugees — like United Nations. Leaders gees,” he said. “Currently, we
Khatun — in the southwest- in Asia, already one of the are talking to mayors and of-
ern town of Mongla, where hardest-hit continents, are ficials of almost half a dozen
Bangladesh’s second-largest scrambling to confront major municipalities about the suc-
seaport is located. changes taking place. cess in Mongla.”

These refugees from climate- Climate scientists like Sal- Huq said more than a dozen
impacted areas within Ban- eemul Huq, director of the satellite towns, all adjacent to
gladesh lost their homes, Dhaka-based International economic hubs such as sea
land and livelihood, but Centre for Climate Change and river ports, have already
found a new life in the riv- and Development, are brand- been identified as potential
erside coastal town about 50 ing Mongla as a climate-resil- migrant-friendly locations.
kilometers (30 miles) inland ient town for the refugees.
from the Bay of Bengal. “These are all secondary
“When it comes to adapta- towns with populations of
Some 150,000 people now tion, Mongla is a success up to half a million, which
live in Mongla — many of story. Changes are coming can shelter up to another half