MORE than 16 million people in Yemen will go hungry this year, a United Nations agency warned today ahead of a conference to drum up humanitarian aid.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the risk of a major famine in the country – subjected to brutal bombardment and blockade by Saudi Arabia since 2015 – “has never been more acute.”

Though the new US government of President Joe Biden has blocked arms sales to the Saudis for use in the war – which has killed an estimated 130,000 people and given rise to what the UN deems the world’s worst humanitarian disaster – the Gulf kingdom has shown no sign of backing down in its bid to crush the Shi’ite Houthi movement, which took control of Yemen in 2014, overthrowing Saudi ally Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.