UN food agency warns recent "humanitarian pause" in Yemen not long enough to reach all in need

The World Food Programme ( WFP) has warned that the recent five-day "humanitarian pause" in Yemen was not long enough to reach all those in need of food and other relief supplies, a UN spokesman told reporters here Tuesday.

WFP dispatched food for more than 400,000 people during the ceasefire, and managed to reach areas that were previously inaccessible, but this was only half the 738,000 people that it hoped to reach, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said at a daily news briefing. "Transporters were reluctant to send their trucks to hotspots, where fighting and shelling continued."

Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its partners conducted assessment during the ceasefire, revealing enormous difficulties for thousands of civilians displaced by conflict. " The number uprooted from their homes since late March is now estimated to be more than 545,000," said the spokesman.

"The temporary pause allowed UNHCR to fly in more aid, transport supplies from ports to distribution hubs in Sana'a and Aden, and pre-position and distribute aid to displaced people in previously hard-to-reach areas," he said.

Intense fighting in Yemen's southern province of Taiz killed at least 20 people on Sunday, the last day of humanitarian ceasefire announced by the Saudi-led coalition forces that aimed to deliver aid to Yemeni people.

Tribal militia loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and gunmen of the Shiite Houthi group engaged in the fighting, which started late Saturday night and continued on Sunday morning in Taiz province. Both sides used heavy weapons including armored vehicles and tanks.

The combat zone extended to several neighborhoods in Taiz province where hundreds of houses were damaged by random mortar shells.

The Shiite Houthi group, backed by army units, and pro-Hadi tribal militia, who have been battling over the control of several Yemeni cities for the past six weeks, have all pledged to respect the truce in order to allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged civilians inside the conflict-battered country.

However, intense fighting flared up just hours after a shaky five-day ceasefire came into effect at midnight Tuesday, hindering the delivery of humanitarian assistance and aids distribution to millions of people trapped.

Yemen has mired in political gridlock since 2011 when mass protests forced former President Ali Abdullash Saleh to step down.

The three-year reconciliation talks failed to resolve the crisis but create huge power vacuum that could benefit the powerful al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and other extremist groups.

Yemen is the base of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a powerful offshoot of the jihadist militant group that has carried out similar suicide attacks on Houthi supporters.

However, the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, is also gaining ground in the country. Endite