Barely an hour after a United Nations-brokered cease-fire took effect in Yemen on Saturday, fighting erupted between the warring sides and Shiite Muslim rebels accused a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of carrying out airstrikes against them.
It was an inauspicious start to the “humanitarian pause” that is supposed to last until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in about a week, so aid workers can deliver critical supplies to civilians caught in fighting that has killed more than 3,200 people.
Yemen was already the Arab world’s poorest country when the U.S.-backed regional coalition launched an air campaign in March to restore exiled President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to power and imposed an air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching the rebels known as Houthis.