Yemen cease-fire goes into effect amid reports of breaches

A 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire brokered by the United Nations went into effect on Wednesday midnight, but many Yemeni residents reported airstrikes in some war-torn areas.

Yemeni residents told Xinhua that there was no sign that the cease-fire was holding as many breaches were reported minutes after truce took effect in Taiz province, Marib province and other provinces.

In the besieged city of Taiz, residents said armed clashes and heavy shelling were heard across the city.

The United Nations special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said earlier in a statement that he "has received assurances from all Yemeni parties" that they will abide by the cessation of hostilities he negotiated in April.

Many previous cease-fires collapsed just minutes after going into effect and failed to allow humanitarian workers to deliver badly needed aid and pave the way for peace talks.

The situation in Yemen has deteriorated economically and politically since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Houthis and Saleh's forces hold most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces backed by Saudi-led military coalition control the rest of the country, including seven southern provinces.

The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have already killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more than 35,000 others and displaced over 2 millions, according to humanitarian agencies. Endi