Yemen violence leaves 80 dead in past 24 hours

Thirty four people, including 19 civilians were killed in a coalition airstrike on Yemen’s southwestern region of Taiz on Tuesday.

Four women and 15 Houthi rebels were among the dead found at the site of the pre-dawn air raid, allegedly targeting a lorry transporting weapons on a busy road.

Meanwhile, Houthi bombing in a residential area killed 11 civilians and a soldier.

Further north in Nahm, 12 rebels and three pro-government soldiers were killed in clashes as fighting in Marib, east of the capital killed six other Houthis.

Also in Marib, a pro-government vehicle carrying forces loyal to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was struck by coalition airstrikes “by mistake”, killing four soldiers and wounding four others, a military official said.

In the south, at least seven civilians, including two children, were killed in suspected drone strikes that mistakenly hit a nearby house in Mahfed while attempting to target militants.

The latest violence comes as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon headed to Kuwait to try and rescue negotiations between Yemen's rival groups.

Ban urged Yemeni negotiators to rapidly come to an agreement as time was simply not on the side of Yemen's population who are currently exposed to food shortages, violence and a near collapsed economy.

"There is an alarming scarcity of basic food items. The economy is in precarious condition," Ban warned on Sunday.

"While the cessation of hostilities is mostly holding, there have been serious violations, causing further casualties and suffering among the civilian population, including children."

The UN chief's intervention follows two months of stop-start talks between representatives of the government of Hadi and Houthi rebels allied to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

The Houthis overran the capital in late 2014 before moving into other parts of Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March last year.

The United Nations says more than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since then, mostly civilians.