Members of a UN monitoring team arrive at the Sanaa International Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, on Dec. 22, 2018. A United Nations six-member team to monitor a UN-brokered ceasefire in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah arrived on Saturday in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, a Xinhua photographer in Sanaa airport witnessed. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)
SANAA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations six-member team to monitor a UN-brokered cease-fire in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah arrived on Saturday in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, a Xinhua photographer in Sanaa airport witnessed.
The team is part of an advance monitoring group led by retired Dutch General Patrick Cammaert, who arrived earlier in the day in the government-held Aden city, in the southern part of Yemen.
On Friday, the UN Security Council the United Nations voted unanimously to adopt Security Council Resolution 2451, a Britain-led resolution to bolster the UN Yemen peace process.
The resolution authorizes the UN to take on the monitoring and other tasks it has committed to doing in Stockholm-based Yemen peace talks.
Cammaert and his team are set to head for Hodeidah on Sunday to begin overseeing the withdrawal of the rival forces.
At midnight (2100 GMT) on Monday, the UN-sponsored cease-fire covering Hodeidah and the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa entered into force, as the first confidence-rebuilding measures between the Houthi rebels and the coalition-backed government.
According to the UN-sponsored truce deal, the withdrawal from the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa and critical parts of the city associated with the humanitarian facilities shall be the first phase and shall be completed within two weeks after the cease-fire enters into force.
The full mutual withdrawal of all forces from the city of Hodeidah and the three ports shall be completed within a maximum period of 21 days after the cease-fire enters into force.
However, both rival forces have blamed each other for violations of the cease-fire.
According to the government-run Saba news agency, the rebels shelled al-Fazah quarter on Friday, forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes.
The shelling came just a day after the rebels carried out missile attacks on two sites of the government troops in Dawar al-Matahin and Kilo 16 areas east of the city, killing four soldiers and wounding 16 others.
Meanwhile, the Houthi rebels also accused the government troops of continuing breaches of the truce since it came into force.
They said the troops launched artillery attacks on al-Fazah quarter for the second consecutive day, according to the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition in Yemen against Houthi militia since March 2015, in order to reinstate the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
