The Saudi Al-Arabiya news network quoted on Wednesday a source in the Yemeni government as confirming that new humanitarian pause is expected in the country within the next hours.

The Saudi Al-Arabiya news network quoted on Wednesday a source in the Yemeni government as confirming that new humanitarian pause is expected in the country within the next hours.

Well-informed Yemeni political sources had expected earlier that the new humanitarian truce would start on Friday.

In the meantime, a diplomatic official said that the fugitive Yemeni President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi will send a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, expressing his readiness to initiate a 10-day humanitarian truce, starting from the last five days of the holy month of Ramadan till the first five days of Shawwal hijri month, under the condition that Hadi will have the exclusive right to declare it.

More than 2,800 people have been killed since the Saudi-US military campaign began on March 26. The United Nations said more than 21 million people, over 80 percent of the population, are now in need of some form of humanitarian aid.

The UN designated last week the war in Yemen as a Level 3 humanitarian crisis, its most severe category.

Nationwide fuel shortages have spread disease and suffering in Yemen, where access to water usually depends on fuel-powered pumps and more than 20 million people, 80 percent of the population, needs some form of aid, according to the United Nations.