The chief of staff of forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi confirmed “the ceasefire has taken effect” at midnight (2100 GMT), despite deadly clashes in regions around the capital Sanaa in the lead up to the deadline.

Fighting over the past year has killed thousands, displaced 2.4 million, and drawn in Yemen’s neighbours, but there are renewed hopes that the new ceasefire will form the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal that can be hammered out between the country’s warring parties from April 18 in Kuwait.

General Mohamed Ali al-Makdashi told reporters that “we are going to respect it… unless the Huthi rebels violate it”.

Three earlier attempts at ceasefires collapsed after a Saudi-led coalition in March last year began air strikes to support the Hadi government and push back the Zaidi Shiite Huthis who overran the capital Sanaa in September 2014 before advancing to other regions.

Chaos and misery have ruled the Arabian Peninsula country since, while pressure has built for an end to the violence.

The Iran-backed Huthis, along with allied troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, sent the United Nations a letter committing to “cease land, sea and air military operations” throughout Yemen, according to a communique carried by the rebel-run Saba news agency.

Foreign Minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi said Hadi’s government had also given “guarantees to the UN that it will maintain the truce”.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed welcomed the ceasefire and called on all parties to respect it.

“I ask all the parties and the international community to remain steadfast in support for this cessation of hostilities to be a first step in Yemen’s return to peace,” he said. “This is critical, urgent and much needed. Yemen cannot afford the loss of more lives.”

– Fighting raged –

In contrast to previous ceasefire attempts, some Huthi leaders met with loyalist troops on a joint committee to make sure both sides comply with the truce, coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP.

“And they will monitor all the personnel on the ground, to not violate the ceasefire,” he said.

In the lead-up to the truce, fighting raged in regions outside Sanaa, while the rebel-held city itself, which has been regularly bombed by coalition warplanes, was quiet.

Rebels and their allies exchanged mortar and artillery fire with pro-Hadi forces in Sarwah region of Marib province east of Sanaa, an AFP correspondent said.