A peace agreement signed in Yemen on Sunday offered hope for a resolution to a spate of sectarian violence that has killed more than 140 people and reportedly led to the resignation of the country’s prime minister.

The impoverished but strategically located Arabian Peninsula nation has long been riven by violence, but the latest outbreak has involved unusually sustained and widespread fighting in its capital, Sana, between Shiite Muslim rebels known as Houthis and government-allied Sunni Muslim militias.

Yemen is also home to what is considered one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda affiliates, but the latest outbreak did not involve its fighters.

On Saturday, a United Nations envoy, Jamal Benomar, announced an accord to end the violence had been reached and was expected to be signed imminently. Battles nevertheless erupted again Sunday, with rebels making significant advances before the peace agreement was actually signed.


The agreement calls for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a technocratic government within a month after consultations with all political parties, Benomar later said at a news conference, the Associated Press reported.

“The head of the government may not belong to any political group,” the envoy said, reading from the document. He said it also calls for security forces to be restructured based on consultations with the political parties.

Sunday’s reports did not detail the circumstances of the decision by Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa to step down. Moreover, his resignation, in principle, has to be accepted by Yemen’s president. The official news agency Saba said there was no word on whether that had occurred, suggesting that the move might yet be reversed.

The rebels took control of the state television building Saturday and subsequently overran a military base, the central bank and a university in the capital — the latter significant because the school had been considered a redoubt of Sunni Muslim hard-liners.


Yemen, whose Al Qaeda-linked militant commanders have for several years been targeted by American airstrikes, has only fragile claims to statehood. Besides battling Al Qaeda, it has faced a persistent insurgency in the south.

As in many countries across the region, the 2011 uprisings that became collectively known as the “Arab Spring” led to turmoil and uncertainty. Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s longtime leader, was forced out in 2012, and since then Yemen has struggled to establish a strong central government and work toward some measure of economic stability.

Hassan is a special correspondent.Follow @LauraKingLAT on Twitter for news from the Middle East