NEW YORK
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "very much disappointed" that a humanitarian truce in war-torn Yemen did not take hold over the weekend, his spokesman said Monday.
A UN-brokered humanitarian cease-fire took effect Friday to permit aid to reach the millions of residents in need of help.
However, air strikes and heavy fighting continued between warring, threatening the pause that was meant to last until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on July 17.
"Despite the continued air strikes, despite the fighting, our humanitarian colleagues and their partners were able to distribute some vital aid to the desperate people of Yemen", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
Ban "calls on all sides to prevent further deterioration of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that we are seeing in Yemen", Dujarric said.
The UN says more than 3,000 Yemenis, half of them civilians, have been killed in the past three months alone.
More than 1 million residents have had to flee their homes and 21 million need immediate help, according to the UN.
Yemen descended into chaos last September, when the Shia Houthi militant group overran the capital, Sanaa.
The move prompted a Saudi-led coalition to launch a military offensive in late March against the group.
