A humanitarian disaster continues unabated in Yemen.

According to the United Nations it could be the worst in history.

It’s calling for a pause in the fighting to allow food and medical supplies to get through.

Quite apart from all the killing, a cholera outbreak has claimed 2,000 lives and starvation could kill many more, with half a million children at risk.

Now, to make matters worse, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed, pushing the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran into a new phase.

The former President ruled Yemen, the poorest country in Arabia, for 34 years, until he was ousted during the Arab Spring.

He memorably described his perilous job as, “dancing on the heads of snakes”.

In 2015, the Houthis, an armed group of Shia Muslims backed by Iran, helped him seize and hold much of the country.

But that all changed suddenly last Saturday when he dramatically swapped sides, announcing he was seeking peace with Sunni Saudi Arabia.

By doing so, he effectively signed his own death warrant.

Analysts now fear that the Saudis, along with their Gulf state neighbours, will ramp up their efforts to reinstall the UN-recognised government of President Hadi in South Yemen to stem Iranian influence.

Civilian casualties are bound to rise as air strikes and sea blockades continue to take their toll on an already broken country.

Uncomfortably, questions are being asked about Western arms’ sales fuelling the crisis.

The sums are eye-watering, with US and UK deals worth £110 billion and £1.1 billion, respectively.

The UK has tough protocols on defence deals, but it’s impossible to monitor how the Saudis use their armed forces, or on what scale.

Once again, sectarian hatred stalks the Middle East, with the innocent suffering the most.