Yemen: One of President Joe Biden's first foreign policy moves was a pledge to help end one of the world's worst humanitarian crises – the war in Yemen – by "stepping up our diplomacy" and "ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales," American Abc News channel reported.

More than a year later, the war has escalated – with a sharp increase in civilian casualties, a growing number of Yemenis facing hunger, with less humanitarian funding, less international oversight of airstrikes, it added.

The report touched on the speech of the UN envoy Grundberg about the possibility of a new cease-fire for Islam's holy month of Ramadan. The United Nations special envoy for Yemen indicated Wednesday, as he promotes a new peace plan. 

Temporary cease-fires and new peace plans have come and gone for seven years now, with the Yemeni people left to suffer the consequences. Nearly 400,000 people are believed to have been killed by fighting, disease and starvation, according to a U.N. report. Over 20 million – two-thirds of the population – are now reliant on humanitarian aid, including two million children facing acute malnutrition.

"The world cannot forget about Yemen," said Tamuna Sabadze, the country director for the International Rescue Committee, an aid group on the ground in Yemen, "The suffering has continued for too long. Those with influence over the warring parties must work to deliver a diplomatic resolution to this crisis."

The report added that fighting in recent months has been worse than in years – with more January the deadliest month since 2018 – just three months after the UN Human Rights Council voted to disband that UN panel investigating war crimes.

UN's new special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg expressed some hope Wednesday that his team was "making progress" on reaching a truce – telling the GCC summit, "Yemen needs a truce. I am engaging with the parties with a sense of urgency to reach this truce by the beginning of Ramadan."

In the meantime, the report added, it's the Yemeni people who suffer – a crisis now exacerbated by Russia's war against Ukraine. Yemen imports approximately one-fifth of its wheat from the two countries, and with energy prices also soaring, the already severely underfunded humanitarian response is left reeling.