Yemen's pro-government forces capture routes leading to Hodeida

Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, seized two major rebel supply routes near the key port city of Hodeida, military sources said Wednesday.

Abdulrahman Saleh Abou Zaraa, head of the brigade fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels in Hodeida province, announced that his forces had taken the insurgents' main supply route linking the port city to the capital Sanaa, known as Kilo 16. 

This comes days after dozens of Houthi fighters were killed as a result of intensified fighting in the coastal province.

On Sunday, at least 84 people have died around Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeida since UN-brokered peace talks collapsed, hospital sources said.

Among the casualties are 73 insurgents and 11 soldiers, who died after talks were abandoned on Saturday. 

Dozens more Houthi rebels and at least 17 soldiers have also been wounded.

The Saudi-led coalition, which backs the internationally-recognised government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has been pushing to close in on the vital port city of Hodeida - through which some 70 percent of Yemen's imports flow.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the conflict to bolster President Hadi after the Houthis took over capital city Sanaa in a blooded coup. The Saudi-led coalition now control Yemen's airspace.

Since the war began more than three years ago, nearly 10,000 people have since been killed and the country now stands at the brink of famine.

The UN has called the war in Yemen the "world's worst humanitarian disaster".