Factions Fighting in Yemen Reach Ceasefire Deal Photo Credit: AP Houthi rebels and Sunni Salafists agreed to a ceasefire Monday facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). United Nations Envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar, in a press conference Monday morning in Sana’a, signaled that the ICRC is working in coordination with President Hadi, who is reportedly sending a helicopter to remove the “twenty-five critical cases” that have been reported so far. According to Reuters, the fighting is a result of a three-week siege on the area by Houthi rebel factions which claim, “that Sunni extremists had transformed the center of Dammaj into a real barracks for thousands of armed foreigners” to fight alongside Yemeni Salafi militants. Death tolls have now reached nearly one hundred, reports Al Jazeera America. Nabil al-Bukeri, head of the Center for Arabic Studies, suggests, “the [Houthis] have realized that the dialogue…will produce outcomes to end the year-long power vacuum,” which has enabled the Houthi’s to expand their military rule in Dammaj and the greater Saada governorate. Al-Bukeri’ suggests the violence in Dammaj is a political ploy to leverage negotiation terms during the conclusion of the National Dialogue Confernce, from which Houthi participants have boycotted on several occasions. Fuad Alsalahi, a Professor of Political Sociology at Sana’a University argues, “the sectarian incitement brewing in Saada serves the interests of some countries in the region that support Yemeni political factions” in an effort to, “derail the efforts to end the dialogue and reach a successful consensus on the structure of the state”. Meanwhile, according to the Yemen News Agency, Vladimir Putin, addressed a letter to President Hadi stressing Russia’s continuing support for a political transition in Yemen. The letter mentions, “the importance of developing the mutual trade and economic relations in a way that is consistent with the impressive results of [Hadi’s]…last visit to Moscow.”.