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Sana'a, Yemen's capital city, before the conflict

USAID said the contribution will help meet the needs of the most vulnerable in what was already the region’s poorest country before the destructive conflict began in 2015, and is now facing a humanitarian catastrophe according to the United Nations.

Since the fighting intensified in March last year, when Saudi Arabia began a bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels, killing many civilians in the process, almost 2.7 million Yemenis have been displaced and over 20 million are in need of protection and assistance, according to USAID.

A famine early-warning system funded by the agency estimates that at least 6 million people are in desperate need of food.

The agency’s assistance includes food supplies, emergency health care, nutrition services, shelter, safe drinking water and protection serves.

The World Food Programme will distribute around 122,000 metric tonnes of US-sourced wheat, peas and vegetable oil from the agency.

USAID urged all parties to the conflict to allow full access to humanitarian workers, which has consistently been hampered throughout the conflict, and said it hopes to make use of an upcoming ceasefire to ensure assistance is distributed to all that are in need across the country.

Late last month, in UN-convened peace talks, the warring parties agreed to a nationwide ceasefire, beginning on 10 April.

This is the latest in several attempts to quell the violence in Yemen, with previous peace talks halted amid numerous reports of breaches in the ceasefire.

In February, the UN appealed for $1.8bn in aid for the country, where four out of five people are in need of assistance and public services have collapsed as a result of unrelenting conflict.