TAIZ - Outside the home of Yemeni teacher Adel al-Shorbagy the queue of children lining up for education keeps getting longer.

Almost 700 come daily to his house which he converted into a school in the government-held city of Taiz, which has been at the centre of a three-and-a-half-year civil war that has left millions on the brink of famine.

Both the Iranian-aligned armed Huthi movement and Yemen's internationally recognised government have deployed forces in various districts of the southwestern city, Yemen's third largest.

Al-Shorbagy opened the school following the outbreak of war saying he had nowhere to send his own children. However, 500 boys and girls aged between six and 15 signed up for lessons in that first year.

"All the schools closed down and we had a problem that our kids were on the street," Al-Shorbagy told Reuters.

"We opened this building as a community initiative. It was my national and humanitarian duty towards my neighbourhood."

Inside the house, facilities are basic, with exposed brick walls and big gaps where windows should be. Ripped curtains are used to divide up space for classrooms.

Undeterred, the eager children find any space they can on the floor, with barely any room to move, let alone write. They share donated books and follow what one of the 16 volunteer teachers writes on a broken white board.