In the paediatric ward of Al Ghaydah central hospital, a young child writhes, screaming in his mother’s arms. He has a skin infection, coupled with vomiting and a fever. At any other hospital he would be dosed with painkillers – but here in Yemen's east, his screams echo through the ward without pause.

There is no medication, nothing to ease the pain except his mother's embrace.

The city of Al Ghaydah, and the wider governorate of Al Mahra, have been spared much of the devastation of Yemen's civil war. But now, locals say, it is facing is an increasingly suffocating blockade by Saudi Arabia – businesses are failing, hospitals are chronically low on supplies, and local fishermen are prevented from leaving the shore.

Last week, humanitarians warned that an assault on the western port city of Hodeidah, through which some 70 per cent of the country’s food is imported, could tip Yemen into famine.

A relative stability has endured at this other end of the country but shortages are nonetheless pushing people to despair.