In February, US President Joe Biden announced a new Yemen strategy, giving momentum to the search for a ceasefire and eventual political solution. There are few concrete details yet of his policy, but central to his announcement was the US' withdrawal of offensive support for Saudi Arabia.
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Biden also appointed a special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, who is wrapping up a two-week visit to region, trying to engage different parties and give mediation efforts a reboot.
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The World Health Organization, which provides critical funding to hospitals and clinics, says it has been left with no funding at all to secure fuel to carry out its services across Yemen.
"From March 2021, WHO will have to stop distributing fuel to 206 facilities across the country, over 60 percent are hospitals providing services not available at the already fragile primary level. This will lead to the stoppage of life-saving services, such as emergency rooms and intensive care units, including COVID-19 ICUs. Over 9 million people will be affected," it said in a document, shared with CNN.
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Nearly three years ago the UN Security Council criminalized "intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare," and demanded that "access to supplies that are necessary for food preparation, including water and fuel" be kept intact in northern Yemen.
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Saudi warships have not allowed any oil tankers to berth at Hodeidah since the start of the year, the Houthis say, an assertion backed by the World Food Programme. The practice is starving the north of much-needed fuel.
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Every month, this hospital's pediatric ward takes in more patients than its capacity of 50, sometimes twice as many. Around 12 children die there each month, Salah said. He and his staff are running on empty -- they haven't been paid for more than half a year.
Yemen has stepped up to the precipice of famine, and back again, many times over its six years of war. Now, famine conditions not seen in the country for two years have returned to pockets of the country.
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The rapidly deteriorating situation is the result mostly of funding cuts that have battered activities by agencies like the World Food Programme, which is struggling now to meet the most basic of needs for millions of Yemenis, particularly in the country's north. But it has also been exacerbated by a mounting fuel crisis.
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"If fuel were easily available on the market, the number of cases we are seeing in the hospital would be much higher, because at the moment, there are patients who are staying at home, because of the challenges and expenses of traveling to the hospital," Dr. Salah said. As a result, said Dr. Salah, children are simply dying in their homes.
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CNN obtained documents from the port's arrival log showing that 14 vessels had been cleared by the UN's verification and inspection body to carry fuel to the country. The tracking website MarineTraffic.com shows those vessels are now sitting in the Red Sea between the Saudi-Yemen border and Eritrea, unable to unload their fuel.
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On the back of his Gulf trip, Lenderking told CNN that Saudi Arabia and its allied Yemeni government were ready to agree to a ceasefire, and called on the Houthis to end their cross-border strikes and assault on Marib.
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"Ultimately, until there's an end to the war, we are doing what we can to save lives. But Yemen needs peace," said the World Food Programme's Yemen spokesperson Annabel Symington.
In April last year, the WFP said it was forced to cut every second monthly food aid delivery to 8 million people in Yemen's north. It's now hoping to raise $1.9 billion, which will be enough just to avert widescale famine.
The WFP and most agencies don't know how much money they will get this year, but it isn't looking good. A pledging conference on March 1 garnered less than half the $3.85 billion the UN estimates it needs just to keep the country fed and running.
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When asked about US support for Saudi Arabia while the country was blocking fuel deliveries to Hodeidah, Lenderking said the situation was "complex."
CNN
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