The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels agreed to immediately halt fighting on Tuesday as they started peace talks mediated by a United Nations special envoy at an undisclosed location in Switzerland, a United Nations spokesman confirmed.
The cease-fire, if it holds, would provide desperately needed relief to Yemen 's population of 24 million after nine months of conflict that have taken the lives of thousands of civilians and inflicted significant damage on the country's infrastructure, deepening the humanitarian crisis there.
Representatives of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi rebels , who control the capital, Sana, arrived in Switzerland on Monday and were due to meet the United Nations special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, for their first round of face-to-face talks by midmorning, the United Nations spokesman in Geneva, Ahmad Fawzi, said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning.