THE UN envoy to Yemen said yesterday that the ceasefire in the country’s civil war was holding and a deal was close after the Saudi-backed faction agreed to return to talks.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said: “The cessation of hostilities is holding around 80 to 90 per cent,” and that vital humanitarian aid could now get through.

Ousted president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s Riyadh-based government agreed at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday to return to the negotiations in Kuwait.