Aid to Yemen is being slowed by the war waged by the Saudi-led coalition, according to a U.S. Navy report that says the coalition has been warning commercial vessels to stay away from areas hit by fighting, including the country’s major ports.

Yemen is a poor country that relies heavily on foreign aid to take care of the nearly 13 million Yemenis facing food and electricity shortages in the chaos that has followed the Saudi-led airstrikes that began last March against Houthi rebels and their allies. Much of that aid comes from other Gulf nations, as well as the United States, which has allocated US$170 million this year for humanitarian aid.

But not much in the way of aid is actually getting through. According to the U.S. Navy report, the coalition has been broadcasting a message to aid ships that declares: "Only vessels with valid permit/clearance numbers will be granted entry into the port areas all others will be turned away.” In practice, that has meant most ships do not reach the port.

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The United Nations declared a level-3 humanitarian emergency, the highest possible designation, on July 2 as a result of what it said were acute shortages in fuel, food and medical supplies impacting over 80 percent of the population.

​Yemen's conflict began after Houthi rebels, who are allied with security forces loyal to former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, overtook much of the country’s major cities earlier this year.

The U.N. estimates that around 5,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the war.

Learn more about the origins of the conflict in Yemen by watching teleSUR’s in-depth coverage below.