More than two years after talks between the internationally recognised Yemeni government and the armed Houthi movement collapsed in Kuwait, the two warring sides finally sat down for another round of negotiations.

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths managed to bring the two sides together for a week of talks in Rimbo, Sweden, which resulted in the announcement of a break-through agreement.

The document includes three provisions: a ceasefire along the Hodeidah front and the redeployment of armed forces out of the city and its port; an agreement on prisoner exchange; and a statement of understanding on the southern Yemeni city of Taiz.

For the 12 million Yemenis on the cusp of famine and for the country as a whole, this was a much-needed positive step towards peace. But it must be recognised that the agreement has some major limitations and much effort has to be made to secure its implementation.

The good and the bad in the Stockholm agreement

The ceasefire is a highly significant development given that Hodeidah’s port is the entry point for most of Yemen’s food imports, commercial goods and humanitarian aid; currently the country relies on imports for some 90 percent of its food and basic commodity needs.

This also marks the first time that Houthi forces have agreed to withdraw from one of the conflict’s most significant front lines. This makes the agreement seem “too-good-to-be-true”, and indeed, this may turn out to be the case. Various points in the agreement are vaguely worded and open to different interpretations by the warring parties. For example, it talks of “the mutual redeployment of forces from the city of Hodeidah and the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa”; the Houthis interpret this as removing military presence but not withdrawing, while the other side think that the Houthis should withdraw fully. This will be a key point of contention in the coming months. 

Furthermore, the timeline of implementation is unreasonably tight. It was agreed that the ports shall be handed over within 14 days of the agreement (December 31) to local police and authorities and city – within three weeks (January 7, 2019). This time might not be enough for the Houthis to withdraw and it is also unclear to what authority they are supposed to handover the city.  

Another challenge is the fact that Houthi forces and their affiliates have become highly entrenched in Hodeidah. Even if and when Houthi military forces make their exit, the handover of power would not be achieved immediately as local security forces – such as the police – are full of Houthi partisans and sympathisers. Dismantling these unofficial networks to re-balance civilian power will be difficult and will need to be approached carefully. 

Under the Stockholm Agreement, the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) will be tasked with addressing such issues, with the committee comprised of representatives from both warring parties and headed by UN officials. The international community should closely monitor the work of the RCC to limit the influence of spoilers and bolster the UN’s authority and capacity to push for the tangible steps necessary to implement the agreement.

The agreement on prisoner exchange  and the statement of understanding on Taiz are also important. Agreeing on an executive mechanism for a prisoner swap is crucial to building confidence between the two parties. The release of prisoners will make a difference for thousands of Yemeni families, given that most people held by the Houthis are civilians imprisoned with no clear justification.

Making progress on Taiz is crucial, but the provision in the agreement, which calls for the formation of a joint committee from both sides of the conflict and the Yemeni civil society to determine the working mechanisms for upcoming consultations has not really resulted in any real action on the ground.  

Another major downside of the Stockholm consultations is that they failed to reach an agreement on two other key issues: the reopening of Sanaa International Airport and the reunification of Central Bank of Yemen, which was split along conflict divide in September 2016.

These issues – along with the prisoner exchange – were central to the initial agenda of the Sweden peace talks, and reaching an accord on them would have had direct implications for both the economic and humanitarian crises in Yemen. By contrast, the most significant outcomes of the negotiation – those related to Hodeidah – were on the original agenda. Agreement on them was reached on the very last day of the talks. 

How did the agreement come about?

It is worth pointing out that the success of the negotiations – partial as they maybe – would not have happened had the international community not pushed for it. This came at the tail of years of inaction and apparent lack of political will on the international level to push for a solution in Yemen. The war has been raging on for more than three years and for almost two it has been declared the world’s largest humanitarian crisis by the UN.  In September, when UN envoy Griffiths attempted to bring the belligerents together in Geneva he failed. So why and how did he succeed in December?

One of the main reasons seems to be that the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi  at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October finally pushed many Western governments to shift their position on Riyadh and its intervention in Yemen.

Previously, the calculation in Western capitals seemed to be that business contracts with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – Riyadh’s largest partner in the coalition campaign in Yemen – outweighed any humanitarian concerns. With the global media frenzy following the Khashoggi killing, and in turn the attention this brought to the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, continued Western support for Riyadh and Abu Dhabi became domestically less palatable for many politicians.

Most importantly, the coalition’s largest backers, the United States and the United Kingdom, began calling for a ceasefire in the Yemen war. Following this the US also ended its in-flight refuelling of Saudi-led coalition aircraft operating over Yemen, and US legislators have been forcefully pushing for the withdrawal of all military support to the Saudi-led campaign.

The US, and more so the UK, who previously hindered prospects for any new Yemen resolution at the United Nations Security Council, have shifted their positions dramatically. London in particular has begun to play a positive role in ending the conflict. The British mission to the UNSC has been crafting a new UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Hodeidah and guarantees of safe passage for delivery of food and medicine and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt attended the peace talks in Sweden.

Moving forward, the international community needs to capitalise on the current momentum. This means both continuing to pressure the Saudi regime to end the conflict, while avoiding implicitly legitimising the armed Houthi movement’s control of areas in northern Yemen. Houthi oppression of the population and their syphoning off of state revenues to fund their war effort must be raised during future negotiations and addressed.

Too often, the international discourse on the war in Yemen has been characterised by oversimplification, and consistent failures to capture the inherent complexities of the conflict on the ground. To ensure and sustain peace in Yemen, peace agreements must serve the interests of the Yemenis and reflect their local dynamics and structures. In this sense, the Stockholm Agreement should be seen as a good start, but the hard work of securing peace in Yemen is only beginning.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. 

Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the Yemeni government have accused each other of violating a ceasefire in the western city of Hodeidah, less than 24-hours after the UN-brokered agreement came into effect.

Residents reported shelling for nearly one hour on the eastern and southern outskirts of the Houthi-held city on Tuesday, whose strategic docks are the point of entry for 70 percent of imports for millions of Yemenis.

The Houthi-aligned al-Masirah TV network accused forces backed by the Saudi-UAE coalition of shelling several sites, including areas east of the airport.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) news agency, WAM, quoting a Yemeni source, said that the Houthis fired mortar bombs and rockets at the May 22 hospital in the eastern suburbs.

“A total of 21 violations since the ceasefire commencement have come to our notice,” a member of the Saudi-UAE coalition told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

“If the UN continues to drag the chain and take too long to get into the [military] theatre, they will lose the opportunity altogether … and the agreement will turn into a dead duck”.

The AFP reported early on Wednesday that the city was calm despite intermittent gunfire during the night.

“The situation is fragile and it’s expected to be fragile for the next couple of days,” said Hakim Almasmari, the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post.

“But since UN representatives are expected to be on the ground pretty soon, these attacks will gradually disappear”.

Meanwhile, residents in the capital told Al Jazeera that air strikes targeted the al-Dailami air base in Sanaa, close to the capital’s airport.

Sky News Arabia reported that the Saudi-UAE coalition destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a launch platform. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt

After eight days of talks in the Swedish town of Rimbo last week, representatives from the Houthi movement and the Saudi-UAE-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi agreed to pull back their fighters from Hodeidah and allow the deployment of UN-supervised neutral forces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors.

The truce, the first significant breakthrough in peace efforts since the war erupted in 2014, was part of confidence-building steps to pave the way for a wider ceasefire in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country and a framework for political negotiations.

The UN is due to convene by video link with the warring parties later on Wednesday to discuss the troop withdrawals and the rebel pullout from the docks of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa.

Unarmed observers from the UN-chaired Redeployment Coordination Committee will oversee the process on the ground and will answer to Patrick Cammaert, a retired general with experience in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and DR Congo. 

Caroline Seguin, the Program Manager at Doctors Without Borders, said despite the relative calm in Hodeidah, the situation was still perilous for civilians.

“The situation is very bad. Access to care isn limited, specifically in the area of Hodeidah inside the city but also around the city,” she told Al Jazeera.

“There is less and less hospital capacity because staff left because they were near the front line. Whereas, some hospitals have now been destroyed and can no longer provide care to the civilian population”.

The conflict has had a devastating impact on the entire country with 22 million people, including 11.3 million children, in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

‘UN should have reopened Hodeidah port’

Hussain al-Bukhaiti, a pro-Houthi activist, called the Rimbo agreement deeply flawed, saying it failed to immediately address the country’s dire situation.

“The Sweden agreement linked the flow of humanitarian aid to the security situation in Hodeidah. They [the UN] should have reopened Hodeidah port.

“They should have allowed food and medicine to come into Hodeidah even though it’s under Houthi control, because as UN has said before, most of the humanitarian aid is coming through Hodeidah,” al-Bukhaiti added.

Western nations have pressed Saudi-UAE coalition to end the nearly four-year war in Yemen that has killed an estimated 60,000 people.

According to Save The Children, and as many as 85,000 children may have starved to death.

The alliance, which receives arms and intelligence from the West, intervened in March 2015 to restore the government of Hadi who was toppled by the Houthis months earlier.

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – The town of Bethlehem is geared up for the Christmas season. A net of lights strings from building to building, creating a canopy over the town’s famous Manger Square. An adorned Christmas tree with a life-sized nativity scene lies at the centre of the plaza. Groups of tourists and pilgrims go in and out of the Nativity Church to see the gold-plated star marking the spot where Jesus was born.

Palestinian tour guides sit in the corner of the square, drinking coffee, while some wander around the entrance of the church. Since a majority of tourists come in large groups organised by Israeli tour companies, these local guides are instead looking for individual tourists to show them around their hometown.

“How [do they] give Israelis permission to do tours in Bethlehem?” Matheos Alkassis, a licensed general tour guide from Bethlehem, asked emphatically. “Let them give us permission to guide in Israel.”

Alkassis studied the historical sites of the Holy Land for four years, took an oral and written exam, and received a license to guide throughout Palestine from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

But this license is virtually useless unless the Israeli government allows Alkassis and the roughly 250 other guides currently on a 12-year-long waiting list to enter Israel. Or at least to allow them to guide tourists within their own governed areas.

Israel controls more than 70 percent of Palestine since the creation of the state and the drawing of the armistice line in 1949.

But since the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the continuing expansion of settlements and military law in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority effectively has control over about 18 percent of the West Bank – known as Area A.

A Palestinian town, Bethlehem is in Area A. But the tourism industry in Bethlehem is yet another battleground of Palestinians and Israelis for controlling the narrative around the occupation.

Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians struggle to be heard. Though engaging with tourists is the perfect opportunity to show people their reality, Alkassis says that Palestinian tour guides avoid referring to themselves as “Palestinian”, an act of self-censorship that helps with being contracted by Israeli tour operators. 

Hiding Palestinian reality

“Palestinians do not have any control of the borders,” says Baha Hilu, a Palestinian tour guide in Bethlehem. “We are only on the receiving end of Israeli tourism.”

Hilu has been leading so-called political tours in the Bethlehem area since 2006. His goal is to provide a more accurate description of the situation imposed on Palestinians.

Hilu shows travellers the daily life of Palestinians by taking them through the Aida refugee camp, to the separation wall, and the olive harvest, among other things.

“Israel’s idea about tourism is just marketing the state of Israel,” Hilu explained. “It’s a political tool.” And Bethlehem is not marketed as a part of Palestine, says Hilu. To the state of Israel and its visitors, Bethlehem is just another destination in Israel.

Hilu confirmed that as a tour guide, he avoids referring to himself as Palestinians – or use “The P-Word”, as he jokingly referred to it. There have been countless instances, the tour guides remembered, in which Palestinians were fired or avoided by companies if they slipped up and use “The P-Word”.

“We can’t say anything,” says Hisman Khemayes, another general tour guide from Bethlehem. “Bethlehem is under their [Israeli] control.”

“Each side has two stories,” Khemayes continued. “They want people to hear the Israeli story and to forget about the former history [of Palestine].”

Al Jazeera reached out to Israel’s ministry of tourism for comment but has to receive a response.   

Collaboration and normalisation

Israel effectively has a monopoly over tourism, Hilu explained. Palestinians, like the wandering tour guides outside the Nativity Church, are usually excluded from it. But there are a select few Palestinian beneficiaries along the way.

“To benefit from Israeli tourism, you need to behave in a way that is not challenging,” Hilu says. For this reason you will commonly see Star of David key chains, sculpted menorahs, or even “I [heart] Israel” t-shirts in some souvenir shops.

“I have Muslim souvenirs, Christian souvenirs, Jewish souvenirs,” says Issa Almashash, owner of Issa Souvenirs. “They are all living in my shop peacefully.”

Issa Souvenirs is located on Nativity street, a large road that cuts through Bethlehem leading to Manger Square.

Differing greatly from the small shops tightly packed together near the Nativity Church in the Old City, the shops on these streets are large and visibly wealthy. The shops on Nativity street also tend to have an equally large charter bus with Hebrew writing on the side parked out front.

When asked if he has deals with Israeli tour companies, Almashash replied, “Everybody does, it’s business. Every shop on this street, they do the same.”

Along with inheriting the family business in 1991, Almashash also inherited contacts with Israeli tour companies. He made the claim that 95 percent of the tourists that come into his shop are brought to him by an Israeli company.

Struggle for visibility

A marketing representative at the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism, who wished to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera that the prevalence of Israeli tour companies is a huge issue for them.

Mainly because the ministry has virtually no control over the commissioned deals between wealthy Palestinians and Israeli companies, but they also have no control over what tourists see, or where they stay.

Tourists’ time is, “divided between the church and the souvenir shop”, the representative explained. Not only do Israeli tour guides control what is said, but they also limit opportunities for tourists to interact with locals and the Palestinian city in general.

If not already on a multiple day, an organised tour where everything is tightly scheduled for you, other advertised tours for the individual traveller are typically only half-day tours.

And “when people come to stay with Israeli tour agencies,” the ministry representative continued, “they sleep in Jerusalem.”

A 2017 report published by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism details how the Israeli monopoly on tourism directly contributes to normalisation of the occupation.

The report states that up to 3,500 people visit the Nativity Church each day, yet less than 2,000 stay the night in Bethlehem despite there being 3,900 registered hotel beds throughout the governorate.

And when they do stay the night, “people stay in the hotel and don’t walk around”, because of what they’re told by their tour guides, says Hilu.

This is strategic in the marketing of Israel, Hilu explains. If people don’t engage with Palestinians, then they will never know what their reality is. That goes for tourists and Israelis alike, he continued.

“The main reason why they built the wall and put red signs warning Israeli citizens not to enter is to stop people from seeing [and] understanding each other,” Khmayes stated matter-of-factly.

After two cups of coffee and a pack of cigarettes on the rooftop of Singer Cafe in Beit Sahour – the starting point of his political tours and a wonderful place that most visitors do not get the chance to see – Hilu concludes, “The understanding of Palestinians does not come from Palestinians themselves.”

“We are represented by the Israeli propaganda machine.”

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Gordon Hartogensis may soon be in charge of a big government agency facing down a $54 billion pension crisis. But nobody has ever heard of him and he has little experience in the field.

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He is, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s brother-in-law. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is his sister-in-law.

In the latest POLITICO Money podcast, POLITICO’s Ian Kullgren discusses his new piece looking into Hartogensis, a little-known and retired multi-millionaire, and how he came to be the Trump administration‘s nominee to head the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

If confirmed by the end of the year, as widely expected, Hartogensis, who spends most of his time now managing his family’s money, will be charged with managing a troubled agency responsible for back-stopping retirees whose pension plans have become insolvent. It’s an important and politically challenging job that will require Hartogensis to work with Congress on a potential bailout plan to address a shortfall of tens of billions of dollars in the PBGC’s cash reserves.

His connections to McConnell may help. But experts in the field and some Democrats wonder whether a politically connected novice will really have the skills to fix the agency’s problems. And Hartogensis’s cousin told Kullgren that while he’s proud of his relative, he also believes that Hartogensis is going to work for a “band of criminals.“

Nigeria’s former chief of defence, who was facing trial for alleged fraud, criminal breach of trust and money laundering, has been killed by unknown gunmen.

Air Marshall Alex Badeh was shot dead on Tuesday on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, further highlighting worsening security problems in the country.

Badeh died “from gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm along the Abuja-Keffi road,” a statement by Nigeria’s air force read.‬

Security analysts say the government is overwhelmed by the increasing level of violence.

“The Abuja-Keffi road on which Badeh was killed has become a security nightmare with robberies happening almost on daily basis,” Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, told Al Jazeera.

The former defence chief had been standing trial since 2016 for allegedly diverting about $20m allocated for fight against Boko Haram, an armed group that fights for strict Islamic law to be implemented in the country’s northeast. 

Anti-corruption officials found $1m in cash in one of Badeh’s mansions during investigations.

He was among several top security chiefs accused of stealing billions of dollars meant for tackling insurgency in the northeast.

Boko Haram has killed scores of soldiers in recent months and analysts say the troops are ill-equipped, fatigued and have reached a breaking point.

Niger Delta oil war

The country is also struggling with increasing violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, which largely accounts for the nation’s wealth.

The relative peace in the area has come under threat as communities protest what they say is a breach of a deal with the government.

More than a hundred communities in the southern Delta State are aggrieved that a contract for the protection of a key crude export line, which provided jobs for former fighters, has been awarded to another firm.

“For somebody to just come and dislodge them from their work and begin to run the streets, they will resolve going back to the creeks, going back to the forests and begin to constitute nuisance everywhere,” youth leader Tennyson Oriunu told Al Jazeera.

“We don’t want war, when there is war there is no development, when there is killings there is no peace, and our state cannot grow, our local government cannot grow, the communities too cannot grow,” Oriunu added.

The state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had recently awarded a contract to a local firm, Ocean Marine Solutions, for the protection of the Trans Forcados pipeline that is frequently targeted for oil theft.

The 87km pipeline, run by Heritage Energy Operational Services, pumps more than 200,000 barrels per day to the export terminal.

Amnesty breach

The pipeline contract is part of a costly amnesty programme for rebels and communities. Some former leaders of armed groups in the region are concerned that the impending loss of jobs would lead to another round of violence.

“If you dislodge this people they will become idle, and when they become idle, the devil will come to open a workshop in their heart,” General Ebirie, a former leader of an armed group, told Al Jazeera.

Security experts are calling for immediate calm to consolidate peace in the area.

“The issue in the Niger Delta is complicated, and will require genuine effort to assuage communities who have lost trust in the Nigerian state,” Nwanze said.

“When there is a broad-based complaint by a community, it is that much harder to calm,” he added.

The country’s oil industry was plunged into a cycle of sabotage in 2016 when a group, the Niger Delta Avengers, carried out series of attacks on facilities.

The group demanded a fairer share of oil revenues for the impoverished and polluted southern region. The attacks impacted production and a drop in output affected the country’s foreign earnings.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude producer and oil sales account for two-thirds of government revenue.

Analysts say that violence in the Niger Delta could exacerbate the political tension ahead of February’s general elections.

President  Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 pledging to end Boko Haram violence, is under increasing pressure to act as he gears up to seek re-election in 2019.

International conspiracy?

The Nigerian government has expressed concerns over the role of international agencies in the war against the Boko Haram.

The military has in the past been critical of international organisations operating in the country and has hit out at organisations reporting that it committed rights violations and war crimes during its fight against Boko Haram.

The uprising in northeast Nigeria began in 2009 and has spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, killing at least 27,000 people and leaving millions dependent on aid for survival.

Last week, the military banned UNICEF from operating in the country over claims it was training “spies” who support Boko Haram.

The military said the organisation had been training people to sabotage its counterinsurgency efforts by reporting alleged human rights abuses by soldiers.

The ban was overturned within hours.

Kabul, Afghanistan – Almost everywhere you look in the Afghan capital, Kabul, there are thick and tall blast barriers made of concrete.

They are a sign of the precarious security situation in the city of more than four million people.

With every blast that shatters the calm of the city, more barriers go up changing the face of Kabul further.

In the city’s industrial area not far from Hamid Karzai International Airport, Muhammad Naseer is hard at work pouring concrete from a wheelbarrow into a T-shaped bowl made of steel.

He is making a three-metre tall blast barrier, commonly known in Afghanistan as a T-wall.

They are the most popular version because they are the first line of defence against suicide bombers and demand is steady.

“I am trying to make as many T-walls as I can,” the father-of-seven told Al Jazeera.

“I’m paid 700 Afghanis ($9) for making each T-wall. I am the only breadwinner and I am satisfied,” the 49-year-old added as he rushed to refill the wheelbarrow with concrete.

Demand is usually high. On a quiet day a group of workers make 20 barriers. Each month, they sell more than 600.

On a dusty patch of land next to the highway and not more than one-kilometre long, there more than six companies rushing against time to make barriers.

Until two years ago, Nazeer Aria worked for the government as an engineer building roads.

But seeing how the security of the country was not improving and sensing an opportunity, he resigned to start a business that solely made explosion barriers.

“Because of insecurity, explosions and attacks I started to make T-walls, bomb barriers, bunkers and guard towers to prevent major destructions that explosions cause,” the father-of-four told Al Jazeera as his employees worked in the distance.

“There are different kinds of barriers, different quality and sizes. They have different prices depending on what the customer wants. The cheapest is $180 and it can go up to more than $1,000.” he said.

Aria says he is providing an essential service and without his business, security would suffer.

“These barriers are saving lives. We’re trying to save lives and these barriers are efficient in maintaining security. We are doing our best to save human lives,” he added.

But business was better before NATO ended its combat mission in the country in 2014.

“The price of the barriers has gone down recently because many foreigners have started leaving Afghanistan,” Jafar Danesh, who also makes barriers near the airport, told Al Jazeera.

“Before, the cheapest barrier was $300. Now it is only $150. Foreigners paid more for barriers. Now most of our customers are Afghans.” he added.

The grey barriers hug the walls of every business and institution in the city – from hospitals, to schools to the homes of prominent people who say without them, they would be targeted by armed groups.

“We are in a complicated war. Our country is facing a lot of problems when it comes to security. The barriers are for my security and not for anything else,” Nazeer Ahmadzai, a lawmaker, told Al Jazeera.

But others think the blast barriers are ruining the city’s appearance, making the capital look like a frontline and a warzone.

“Now everyone is putting up barriers next to their houses and offices. Anyone visiting the city will say what are these barriers for? They make the city look ugly and cause traffic problems too,”  Muhammad Yonus Nawandish, former Kabul mayor, told Al Jazeera.

But the blast barrier manufacturers say their contribution is as essential as an ambulance. And they are not in a rush to give up their trade.

“Insecurity harms everyone, even us. We get sad whenever an explosion happens. Everyone wants peace and security. If we have security, we will give up this business and will start to build roads, bridges and whatever that is in [the] interest of our people.” Danesh said.

United Nations, New York – The Dutch general tasked with monitoring the ceasefire in Hodeidah faces a daunting task in policing the government and rebel forces massed around Yemen’s port city.

Major General Patrick Cammaert will leave New York this week to travel to Yemen and oversee the truce between the Houthis and the Saudi Arabia-backed government after the two sides reached an agreement in Sweden last Thursday.

“He’s got a challenging road ahead and he will be working with both sides to figure out how to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and what the verification mechanisms are going to be,” his colleague Sahr Muhammedally told Al Jazeera.

Muhammedally, a Middle East expert at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, a campaign group of which Cammaert is also a board member, predicted tense talks between her colleague, a veteran peacekeeper, and the Houthis and the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

“That’s going to be a huge challenge. Will the internationally-recognised government allow the Houthis to have their forces to patrol Hodeidah and provide security? Will the Houthis allow government forces in?” asked Muhammedally.

Under the deal agreed in Sweden, the UN is responsible for setting up a Redeployment Coordination Committee to oversee the ceasefire and ensure troops vacate Hodeidah city and the ports of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa.

Tough reputation

That committee will be led by Cammaert, a retired general with experience in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and DR Congo, where he was known for his tough approach during peacekeeping missions. 

In 2005, Cammaert took command of the 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in eastern DRC, where he enforced a principle that “UN forces are impartial and not neutral”.

Speaking to the BBC in 2007, Cammaert said “Being neutral means that you stand there and you say ‘Well, I have nothing to do with it’, while being impartial means that you stand there, you judge the situation as it is and you take charge”. His Eastern Division indeed took charge in the region, when, in early 2005 his troops killed 50 fighters in Ituri after losing nine of its own soldiers in an ambush.

Under his mandate in Yemen deal, a yet-to-be-defined group of “local security forces” will be tasked with patrolling the city and ports.

According to Muhammedally, Cammaert will likely struggle to find candidates for this force who are acceptable to the Houthis and the government. He may opt for a group of former police officers from the Hodeidah area, she said.

“The composition of the internal security force will be a challenge,” Muhammedally, a lawyer, told Al Jazeera.

“Getting the right force, which is seen as legitimate by people in Hodeidah, is essential. The mandate, competencies and training to engage with civilians is also critical.”

‘UN blue helmets will not be armed’

The UN will convene Yemen’s warring parties for the first meeting of a Redeployment Coordination Committee on Wednesday, to discuss the redeployment of all forces from the Hodeidah area, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

“It will include military/security representatives from the two sides,” Dujarric told reporters.

After a week of UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden, the Iran-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed Yemen government forces agreed last Thursday to cease fighting in the Red Sea city and withdraw forces. The truce began on Tuesday.

“The full mutual redeployment of all forces from the city of Hodeidah and the ports of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa shall be completed within a maximum period of 21 days after the cease-fire enters into force,” Dujarric said.

The security force will not be a UN blue helmet operation and its members “will not be armed,” Dujarric said.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is considering a resolution that asks UN chief Antonio Guterres to submit proposals by the end of the month on how to monitor the ceasefire and redeployment of forces.

The draft resolution “calls on all parties to the conflict to take further steps to facilitate the unhindered flow of commercial and humanitarian supplies including food, fuel, medicine and other essential imports and humanitarian personnel into and across the country”.

Diplomats said it would likely be voted on later this week.

The conflict has pushed Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, to the verge of famine, and millions of people rely on food aid.

More than 80 percent of Yemen’s imports used to come through Hodeidah port, but that has slowed to a trickle.

A Turkish court has sentenced a nephew of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric accused by Ankara of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt, to seven-and-a-half years in prison on terrorism-related charges.

Anadolu state news agency said on Tuesday that Selman Gulen was sentenced for being a member of a “terrorist” organisation. The prosecutor had asked for seven-and-a-half years to 15 years.

Selman Gulen told the court in the capital, Ankara, that he had met his uncle only once in his life, as he denied the allegations. He charged that the court was sentencing him only because he was a relative of Gulen and demanded his acquittal.

Turkey blames Fethullah Gulen and his FETO movement for a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, by a faction in the military.

Gulen has denied any role in the failed coup, which left more than 250 people dead and 2,000 injured. Once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.

Turkey also considers Gulen’s movement to be a “terrorist” group and has arrested thousands of people with alleged connections to him.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told parliament on Monday that 15,154 members of the armed forces have been sacked since the failed coup for their links to FETO. According to Anadolu, 326 of them have since got their jobs back.

On Tuesday, 70 people were arrested for their alleged connections to the movement in operations across Turkey, Anadolu reported. They included soldiers on active duty, former police officers and a medical student.

Last month, Turkey’s interior ministry said nearly 218,000 people have been detained for their alleged links to the abortive putsch.

Trump ‘looking at’ extradition

Turkey has long demanded the extradition of Gulen, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania. Washington has so far said that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence against him.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Erdogan and US President Donald Trump discussed the extradition issue on the sidelines of the recent G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

“In Argentina, Trump told Erdogan they were working on extraditing (Fethullah) Gulen and other people,” Cavusoglu said.

On Monday, a senior White House official said that Trump did not commit during the meeting with Erdogan to extradite Gulen.

A day later, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said that the US president had told his Turkish counterpart he would “look at” the question of extraditing the cleric.

“The only thing he said is we would take a look at it but nothing committal at all in the process,” said Sanders, speaking at the White House.

“Nothing further at this point beyond that … nothing committal at all in that process.”