Yemen peace talks stall over 'deep divisions'

Yemen's warring sides have not yet agreed on terms for a new round of peace talks, two months after holding their first face-to-face meeting, the UN envoy said on Wednesday.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the UN Security Council, "deep divisions persist that prevent me from calling for the next round of talks."

Yemen's Saudi-backed government sat down with the Shia Houthi rebels and their allies in December to begin talks on ending a war that has brought the impoverished Arab country to its knees.

The UN-brokered negotiations that were held in Switzerland had aimed to resume in mid-January, but that meeting was repeatedly delayed and no new date has been announced.

The UN envoy said the parties were divided on "whether a new round of talks should be convened with or without a new cessation of hostilities" and were not willing to offer sufficient guarantees that a truce would hold.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since a Saudi-led coalition began an air war in March 2015 to push back an offensive by the Houthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

"Many parts of Yemen are again witnessing air strikes and extensive ground fighting," said the envoy.

He also cited a "significant increase" in the number of missiles fired by rebels across the border into Saudi Arabia and an upsurge in attacks carried out by al-Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State (IS) group.

Earlier on Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed at least 14 soldiers in Aden, in the latest attack on Yemen's second city claimed by IS fighters.

A man detonated his explosive vest among soldiers at the camp in the southern city of Aden overseen by the Saudi-led coalition, a military source said.

Sudanese forces belonging to the coalition, another military source said, were training the soldiers.

"So far, the bodies of nine soldiers and several wounded were brought to the hospital" in Aden, a medical source said.

The attack took place at the Ras Abbas military camp located in Aden's western Buraiqa district, the first military source said.

Alongside Syria and Iraq, Yemen ranks as having one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with some 82 percent of the country's population in dire need of food, medicine and other aid.

The UN envoy urged the Security Council to push for a halt to the fighting to pave the way to a permanent ceasefire and return to peaceful negotiations.

"Yemen has suffered greatly, and its people have withstood an unspeakable tragedy," he said.