Yemen can't afford loss of more lives: UN envoy

 A UN-brokered ceasefire was mostly holding across war-torn Yemen on Monday except in the besieged city of Taiz where shelling killed at least one person and wounded five, according to residents.
There were also sporadic exchanges of gunfire in other parts of the country after the truce between the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government, and the Houthis went into effect at midnight on Sunday.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, urged all parties to work to ensure that the cessation of hostilities is "fully respected."
"This is critical, urgent and much needed. Yemen cannot afford the loss of more lives," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement on Monday. He added that preparations were underway for Kuwait peace talks, which are to focus on key issues such as withdrawal of militias and armed groups, handover of heavy weapons and resumption of an all-inclusive political dialogue.
The truce is meant build confidence between Yemen's warring sides ahead of the UN-sponsored peace talks scheduled to take place in Kuwait on April 18.
Residents of Taiz, which has been besieged by the rebels for over a year, are blaming the Houthis for the overnight random shelling that killed one civilian and wounded four.
In the capital, Sanaa, which has been under the Houthis' control since September 2014, the coalition largely halted its airstrikes. But in the district of Naham, on the fringes of Sanaa province, fighting continued overnight between armed men backing the government and the Houthis, according to residents there.
The Saudi-led coalition has said it will commit to the open-ended cease-fire and halt its yearlong air campaign against the rebels.
Earlier, the alliance's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al Asiri, said that the coalition's commitment to the truce will depend on the extent that the Houthis abide by the Security Council resolution stipulating the rebels pull their forces from the cities and hand over heavy weapons to the government. The coalition, comprised mostly Arab countries, launched its campaign against the Houthis in March 2015, several months after the rebels overran Sanaa.
Since then, more than 9,000 people have been killed in Yemen's civil war, including more than 3,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

• MENA