UN authorises monitoring of Yemen cease-fire in key port

The Security Council has voted unanimously to authorise a UN mission to monitor implementation of a cease-fire and the withdrawal of rival forces from Yemen's key port of Hodeida.

The British-drafted resolution adopted Wednesday gives a green light for up to 75 UN monitors to be deployed for six months to oversee implementation of the cease-fire and redeployment agreement between Yemen's government and Houthi Shiite rebels signed in Stockholm on December 13.

The council previously agreed to the 30-day deployment of monitors and the UN said last week about 20 are on the ground.

The Stockholm agreement, if fully implemented, could offer a potential breakthrough in Yemen's four-year civil war, which has brought the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of starvation and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.