AS MANY as 15 million Yemenis have had their water supplies cut due to an acute fuel crisis, increasing the risk of deadly diseases including cholera, according to a new Oxfam report.

The aid agency said that it has had to scale back its trucked water supplies to thousands of dependents, while piped water systems it installed are running at just 50 per cent of operating capacity.

A number of major cities including Ibb, Dhamar and al-Mahwit have seen their central water systems shut down entirely.

A recent report from the UN Development Programme revealed that the Saudi-led blockade has sparked the fuel shortages, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The reactionary gulf kingdom has led a four-year bombing campaign on Yemen, targeting schools, hospitals and infrastructure with allegations of war crimes.

It has brought the country to the brink of the world’s worst global famine in a century.

More than two million suspected cases of cholera have been recorded since April 2017, claiming over 3,700 lives.

Oxfam’s Yemen country director Muhsin Siddiquey called for an end to restrictions on oil importers.

“This weaponisation of the Yemeni economy is yet another cruelty inflicted on the people of Yemen who have been forced to endure four years of conflict,” he said.