Yemen's capital city has been largely reduced to rubble by Saudi Arabia's continuing air strikes, with residents describing “huge explosions” and buildings shaking as if they were in the “centre of an earthquake”.

Riven by civil conflict since the 2011 revolution, Sanaa has endured a punishing bombing campaign from the Saudi-led coalition in support of ousted president Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The scale of the destruction across the country is devastating.

An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Approximately 82 per cent of Yemenis need some form of humanitarian assistance, with more than half of the population lacking access to clean drinking water.

The escalation of the conflict in March 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition started air strikes under Operation Decisive Storm, has seen at least 5,700 people killed – half of them civilians.

In pictures: Yemen water crisis Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Yemen water crisis In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni girl sits on plastic jerry cans as she waits get water at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa. In the mountains around Sanaa, farmers are drilling so many unlicensed boreholes to irrigate the thirsty crop for the stimulant plant qat, craved by the capital's residents, that the water table is falling by as much as six metres (20 feet) a year In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni young boy pushes a wheelbarrow loaded with plastic jerry cans before filling them at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni child fills a bottle with water as families from the northern city of Amran, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sanaa, take refugee in the capital after fleeing their home as battles between the Yemeni army and Shiite Muslim rebels intensifies In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen Yemenis gather by a water point to fill their jerry cans in Sanaa as the city suffers a water shortage In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni woman carries on her head a jerry can after filling it at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni young boy drinks water at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa. Yemen, ravaged by years of factional strife and widespread poverty, is one of the world's most water-stressed countries with the lack of access to clean water having devastating implications for children In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni refugee girl fills a container with water in a makeshift kitchen in the grounds of a public school in the port city of Aden, now being used as the living quarters for internally displaced families who had to flee their homes when Al-Qaeda militants swept into southern Abyan province In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni young boy pushes a wheelbarrow loaded with plastic jerry cans as he arrives to fill them at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen Yemeni young boys carry plastic jerry cans as they arrive to fill them at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa In pictures: Yemen water crisis Yemen A Yemeni young boy carries a can as he arrives to fill it at a public tap at a slum in the capital Sanaa

International human rights organisations have claimed Saudi and coalition forces may have repeatedly broken international humanitarian law (IHL).

“Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years,” ICRC head Peter Maurer told the Associated Press in August.

Since then, the situation has only deteriorated further.

More than 570 children killed in Yemen war since March

The latest United Nations assessment of Yemen is predicted to state as many as 5,000 civilians have died in air strikes, with around 25,000 injured. Unicef estimates as many as 10 children are being killed every day. As the country’s infrastructure ceased to function, as many as 21 million people have been left without access to basic, life-sustaining services.

Against this bleak assessment the bombing has continued: an Amnesty International report in November alleged the Kingdom-led coalition used a British-made missile to destroy a civilian ceramics factory in Sanaa.

While much of the arms used are supplied by the US, the UK does provide some missiles, logistical support, airborne refueling and some intelligence.

A UK government spokesperson insisted they did not recognise the claims, adding that Britain “takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world.”