SANAA, Yemen -- A Shiite rebel leader in Yemen vowed to not surrender Sunday amid Saudi-led airstrikes in a rambling speech that rejected United Nations efforts to halt violence there, even as the political party of the country's former leader welcomed international efforts for a cease-fire.
The speech by rebel leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, his first since the Saudi campaign began, offered signs of cracks appearing in his alliance with Yemen's one-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh. However, his speech signaled no sign of his rebels backing down from their offensive after earlier seizing the capital, Sanaa, and forcing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile.
"The great Yemeni people will never surrender and never be subjugated," al-Houthi said.
Saudi Arabia and allied countries began their airstrike campaign March 26, hoping to roll back the Houthi advance, which began in September. Western governments and Sunni Arab countries accuse the Houthis, who largely are Zayidi Shiites, of receiving military support from Iran. Iran and the rebels deny that, though the Islamic Republic publicly has sent humanitarian aid into the country.
As of Tuesday, the strikes have killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and at least 364 civilians, the U.N. has said.
As al-Houthi blamed Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel for orchestrating the campaign against his forces, the political party of Yemen's former longtime autocrat said it welcomed a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in the country. In a statement on its website, Saleh's General People's Congress said it would "respond positively" to the U.N. Security Council resolution issued last week.
Pro-Saleh forces have been fighting alongside the Houthis.
The U.N. resolution demands that all Yemeni parties, especially the Houthis, end violence and return swiftly to U.N.-led peace talks aimed at a political transition. It makes no mention of the Saudi-led airstrikes targeting the rebels and pro-Saleh forces.
Meanwhile Sunday, pro-Hadi forces regained control of part of the Aden coastline that had been held by the Houthis and their allies, security officials said. The gained positions allow them to attack the rebel-held airport and cut off supplies to anti-Hadi forces, they said.
Rebel forces also made another push to take the Dar Saad area, just north of Aden, but failed, the officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
Meanwhile, in Amman, the United Nations said Saudi Arabia had agreed to fund completely a $273.7 million appeal for emergency aid to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe inside Yemen.
Purnima Kahsyap, humanitarian coordinator for the U.N. aid effort in Yemen, said that the U.N. was thankful to Saudi Arabia for covering the entire appeal cost, but urged all other partners to continue to provide assistance.
Millions of Yemenis, especially in the south, are cut off from food, water, electricity and other basic needs. Aid agencies are warning of a burgeoning humanitarian crisis in what is already the Arab world's poorest country.
"Probably in the last 10 years, it's one of the worst crises that has hit Yemen and the situation is deteriorating very rapidly," Abeer Etefa, World Food Programme's spokesman for the Middle East and North Africa, said by phone. "We're talking here about really a very grim outlook."
At the beginning of the month, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said there were enough food stocks to last six months. But amid the fighting, those supplies are dwindling fast. On April 8, thick clouds of smoke hung over Aden when grain silos went up in flames.
No further food shipments are expected, Etefa said, as the coalition has blockaded ports to control shipping routes.
A country of 26 million, Yemen imports the bulk of its food, including nearly all its wheat and rice. The number of "food insecure" people in Yemen has increased to 12 million, a 13 percent rise since the start of the crisis, the World Food Programme said.
Across the country, food prices have doubled and fuel prices have risen four-fold. The price of 50 kilograms of flour has risen to $47 from $23 while a 20-liter canister of gasoline has shot up to about $125 from about $14.
Prices matter little, though. With shuttered shops and sparse stocks, "even those who have some savings can't buy what they want," said Nour Fadhal, a resident of Aden.
Yemenis "will be starving soon, literally," said Farea Al-Muslimi, a visiting scholar and Yemen analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Already, people are attempting to flee by land and sea, as all airports have closed. The U.N. said it's making contingency plans to receive as many as 30,000 Yemeni refugees in Djibouti and 100,000 in Somalia over the next few months.
Information for this article was contributed by Ahmed Al-Haj, Sam McNeil and Merrit Kennedy of The Associated Press and by Mohammed Hatem, Nafeesa Syeed and Amy Teibel of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 04/20/2015