ROME: Saudi Arabia has donated $60 million to help prevent famine in war-torn Yemen, where soaring food prices and Covid-19 have deepened battle woes, the United Nations said Thursday. The conflict flared in 2014 when Huthi insurgents seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention to prop up the government the following year.

The $60 million (50.5 million euros) contribution to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to blunt international criticism of its role in Yemen, while it struggles to extract itself from the worsening conflict.

Some 80 percent of Yemenis are now dependent on aid, in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The war has also displaced millions of people.

Five million people in Yemen are "just a step away from famine", as the conflict is aggravated by economic decline and the impact of the pandemic, the Rome-based WFP said in a statement.

"We are currently witnessing an alarming deterioration of the food security situation in Yemen that goes beyond any levels seen before," said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.

The Saudi contribution was "urgently needed" for the agency's large-scale food assistance programme, which supports a total of nearly 13 million people, he said.