The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Gen Rashad Al Alimi, arrived in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday.

After arriving at King Abdulaziz International Airport, Gen Al Alimi was met by Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the governor of Makkah, and other high-ranking officials, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Gen Al Alimi was selected to head the eight-man leadership council, which was given the task of running the country after President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi stepped down earlier this month.

The council was sworn in to power on April 19 in the southern city of Aden, only weeks after a truce between the government and the Houthi rebels began.

The UN-brokered truce, which came into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide ceasefire in Yemen in six years.

It arrived amid concerted international and regional efforts to find a settlement to the conflict, which has devastated the Arab world’s poorest country and pushed it to the brink of famine.

Yemen’s brutal civil war erupted in 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try restore the government to power.

The conflict has killed more than 150,000 people, including more than 14,500 civilians. It has also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.