The UN Security Council unanimously voted on Monday to extend the mandate of the body monitoring the ceasefire agreement in Yemen’s Al Hudaydah Governorate, the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA).

The Security Council adopted Resolution 2742 (2024), allowing the mission to act until July 14, 2025. With the new resolution, it urged the Secretary-General to deliver monthly reports on the situation in Hudaydah.

The UNMHA was initially established as a result of the Stockholm Agreement (2018), which established a ceasefire in the city of Hudayah and the nearby ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Isa. This document was signed among parties to the conflict in Yemen, namely the government and the Houthis. Apart from the redeployment of military personnel from these areas, it also led to the establishment of a Redeployment Coordination Committee entitled to monitor operations in Hudaydah. Finally, it established the UNMHA in 2019 to support the correct application of the agreement.

Both the representatives of the UK and the US delivered statements on the importance of extending the mandate of this mission after the vote. Namely, the US delegation referred to Iranian involvement in illegal weapons transfer for the Houthis and addressed the detention of 45 staff members of the UN and other organizations by the group. This possible case of enforced disappearance, a crime under international law, has already been addressed by multiple NGOs including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

According to UN data, Yemen is facing a humanitarian and political crisis with 80 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid and protection. Since the start of the civil war, three million people have been displaced from their homes and the collapse of sanitary and economic institutions has led to one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.