The United Nations has appealed for $2.1bn (£1.7bn) to help provide food and other life-saving assistance to avert a famine in war-ravaged Yemen.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 18.8 million people need help, with at least 10 million of those "acutely affected" and in dire need.

Yemen has been divided by nearly two years of civil war between the Iran-allied Houthi group and a coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which has created a humanitarian crisis in the country.

Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, described the situation there as "catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating".


Special report: UK's role in Yemen's civil war

He said nearly 3.3 million people, including 2.1 million children, are acutely malnourished.

OCHA chief and former UK government minister Stephen O'Brien said that if those in need do not get help there could a famine.

He said: "Two years of war have devastated Yemen and millions of children, women and men desperately need our help.

"Without international support, they may face the threat of famine in the course of 2017 and I urge donors to sustain and increase their support to our collective response."

Yemen's civil war has left parts of the country occupied by groups linked to al Qaeda and other Islamist factions.

People in Yemen are starving

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Among those taking part in the military action has been the United States, which last month launched a raid that led to the deaths of several women and children and a US serviceman, as well as many militants.

But the conflict escalated dramatically in March 2015.

A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air raids against Shia Houthi rebels, who had seized swathes of the country's centre and north, including the capital Sanaa.

Nearly 7,500 people have been killed since the escalation, and more than 40,000 injured.

More than two million people have been displaced inside the country, according to the UN.

The UN's move comes as the foreign minister in Yemen's government in exile said it had asked for a "reassessment" of last month's US raid, one that was widely applauded by Donald Trump's new administration.

The New York Times reported overnight that Yemen had withdrawn permission for US anti-terror group operations as a result of local reaction to the raid, something Abdul-Malik al Mekhlafi denied.