The Stockholm Agreement: The City and Ports of al-Hodeidah

Ansarallah seized Yemen’s capital in September 2014 and the following month entered alHodeidah, its sights set on the country’s largest port. Indeed, the city of al-Hodeidah and its ports eventually fell under Ansarallah’s complete control. In spring 2018, the Saudi-led coalition that had intervened in the Yemeni civil war in March 2015 on the side of the government to oppose Ansarallah launched a Red Sea offensive with the aim of reclaiming the west coast of the country, including the city and ports of al-Hodeidah. The coalition hoped that increased military pressure on Ansarallah would lead to overall progress toward its primary goal of reinstating Hadi in Sanaa, the capital. The military offensive was eventually halted by a ceasefire agreement after the forces supported by the Arab coalition entered the governorate but before they were able to take a hold of the ports and the city. The following UN-led peace talks resulted in the Stockholm Agreement, signed December 13, 2018. After that, Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen, put his energies into promoting implementation of the provisions of the agreement involving redeployments from the ports, city and environs of alHodeidah. Other provisions of the accord included prisoner swaps and de-escalation in Taiz. The warring parties agreed to the redeployment of all forces associated with the conflict parties from al-Hodeidah’s major ports as the first step in implementing the agreement, followed by troop redeployments from the city. In terms of the latter, the agreement mandates that all parties “commit to remove any military manifestations from the city” and that security “shall be the responsibility of local security forces in accordance with Yemeni law.” It further states that “legal lines of authority shall be respected and any obstructions to proper functioning of local state institutions, including supervisors, shall be removed.” This is where, in part, uncertainty comes into play concerning the status of the local security forces that are supposed to fill the void once the combatants have redeployed. On May 11, 2019, six months after the peace talks in Stockholm, Ansarallah unilaterally redeployed forces from three ports on the Red Sea: al-Hodeidah, Ras Isa and Salif. Although the unilateral withdrawal was accepted by the UN special envoy as satisfying the redeployment provision of the Stockholm agreement, the Yemeni government did not accept the handover as such. The forces’ unilateral withdrawal was met with widespread scepticism, particularly by the Hadi government, because Ansarallah was said to have handed port management to its members in the Coast Guard. The scepticism appeared to be justified given that all the security establishments in the governorate had gradually come under Ansarallah’s control beginning in October 2014.