Aden: The United Nations warned fuel shortages threaten to halt all relief operations in Yemen "within days" as Saudi-led air strikes and ground fighting killed 47 people in second city Aden.
Gulf Arab states rejected any neutral venue for UN-brokered peace talks as a confidential UN report supported their allegations that regional rival Tehran had been arming Yemen's Huthi Shiite rebels since 2009.
Yemen was the poorest Arab country even before the rebellion against now exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi escalated last year and UN agencies said yesterday that millions were at risk from any halt to food distributions.
The bombing campaign launched by a Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Arab states on March 26 has virtually halted the delivery of both humanitarian aid and commercial goods, including fuel.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the lack of fuel was preventing agencies on the ground from distributing even those stocks already inside the country, most of which are in the hands of rebels who are under a UN arms embargo.
"Humanitarian operations will end within days unless fuel supplies are restored," Ban said.
He called for an "immediate resumption of fuel imports to avoid making the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen even worse."
The World Food Programme said it was halting its food distribution in Yemen due to the severe fuel shortage.
The agency is in urgent need of more than 200,000 litres of fuel to be able to continue distributing food supplies already in its warehouses, stocks that can feed 1.5 million people for one month.
The WHO said that as of Monday 1,244 had been confirmed killed in fighting in Yemen since March 19.
It said that the collapse of access to health care had also fanned the spread of epidemic diseases, with 44 alerts of suspected outbreaks of diseases including measles, dengue fever and meningitis.
A hospital official in Aden today said the latest Saudi-led air strikes and ground fighting between the rebels and Hadi loyalists had killed 47 people.
They comprised eight civilians, 10 loyalists and 29 rebels and allied troops, the official said.
The southern port city has been the scene of fierce fighting for more than a month.
Residents said that overnight air strikes targeted rebel reinforcement convoys headed to the city from the neighbouring southern provinces of Abyan and Lahj.
Early last week, Riyadh announced a halt to the coalition air war but it has kept up its air strikes every day since.
