Prospects of a U.N.-mediated truce in Yemen have raised hopes for a pause in bloodletting in a civil war that has killed at least 10,000 people and involved a 19-month intervention by Saudi Arabia and Arab allies.
Diplomats hope the 72-hour truce beginning at midnight will be extended by the warring parties and open the way for aid supplies as disease and hunger are spreading in the impoverished country.
The World Health Organisation reported an outbreak of cholera in Sanaa this month and the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation said that the war has halved cereal production and that 1.3 million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished. Our timeline traces the origins of the conflict and shows what is at stake in this under-reported emergency.
