UN envoy to meet Yemen’s president over Hodeida fighting

CAIRO – The U.N. special envoy for Yemen says he is visiting the southern port city of Aden to try and prevent an all-out assault on the crucial port city of Hodeida.

Martin Griffiths tweeted on Tuesday that he will arrive in Aden on Wednesday to meet with Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

He says he will brief Hadi “on his latest efforts to avoid military escalation and return to the negotiation table.”

A Saudi-led coalition is fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, to restore Hadi to power.

Griffiths has met with Houthi leaders in the capital, Sanaa, amid a coalition assault on Hodeida, the main point of entry for food into a country already on the brink of famine.

Yemen’s civil war has raged since March 2015.