The international charity Oxfam has urged Yemen’s warring sides to extend a two-month truce, appealing to the parties to the conflict to work together to avoid “catastrophic hunger” in the war-wrecked country.

Oxfam said on Tuesday that the United Nations-brokered ceasefire is essential for millions of Yemenis suffering from a lack of basic services and soaring prices of food and other goods.

The charity’s Yemen director, Ferran Puig, said the truce has brought a “long overdue sense of hope that we can break the cycle of violence and suffering in Yemen”.

A Saudi-led coalition, the internationally recognised Yemeni government, and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels agreed to a truce that started on April 2, which expires on Wednesday night.

“The opportunity must be seized to extend the truce and push for a lasting peace if we are to avert the risk of millions of Yemenis being forced into acute hunger,” Puig said.

More than three dozen aid groups working in Yemen have joined Oxfam’s appeal, saying in a joint statement addressed to the warring sides that “the gift for a better life for the people of Yemen is in your hands”.
The truce has been the first nationwide ceasefire in the past six years of Yemen’s civil war.

aljazeera