Violence escalated in Yemen over the weekend, with more than 150 collective casualties on both rebel and government-backed sides. Key coastal city Hodeida was the site of a major government-backed ground ambush by troops against rebel forces. The Houthis, a rebel group, claims to have killed or wounded dozens of troops in their counter attacks.

The acts of violence came despite the Trump administration’s recent calls for a cease-fire by late November.

The war in Yemen began in March 2015 when the Houthi-led Supreme Revolutionary Committee declared a movement to overthrow the Yemeni government led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Allied with forces loyal to the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis launched attacks into the southern provinces. Hadi’s government was forced into exile.

The Houthis have gained control of a majority of the northern part of Yemen’s territory. For the past three years, a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed military coalition supporting the exiled government has been resisting the Houthis and seeking to reinstate the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The coalition claims the Houthis have external backers in the Iranian government. The U.S. has sold billions of dollars’ worth of arms to Saudi Arabia to aid in the coalition’s fight against the Houthis.

The United Nations has classified the ongoing war as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Devastating air campaigns have resulted in thousands of deaths. The U.N. Population Fund estimates three-quarters of Yemen’s people need life-saving assistance. The constant violence between the warring sides makes it difficult to deliver and dispense humanitarian aid to the country.

Millions of citizens are at risk for starvation in the face of what is being called “the worst famine in the world in 100 years” by the United Nations. Thousands of Yemeni children are dying from severe cases of malnutrition. It is particularly alarming that Hodeida has become a site of extreme violence, as 70 percent of Yemen’s food and aid enters the country through the port city.

Save the Children’s Yemen director, Tamer Kirolos, publicly urged militants on both sides to put an end to the fighting.

“The international community must increase diplomatic pressure and intensify efforts to secure an immediate halt to the offensive and a comprehensive ceasefire,” Kirolos said.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also urges the international community to put pressure on Yemen to end the conflict.

“For too long in the Yemen conflict, both sides have believed a military solution is possible, with catastrophic consequences for the people,” Hunt said in a statement.

“Now for the first time there appears to be a window in which both sides can be encouraged to come to the table, stop the killing and find a political solution – that is the only long-term way out of disaster.”

All sides in the Yemeni civil war have been accused of violating international law and committing war crimes against citizens.

In August, the coalition bombed a school bus carrying children. The strike killed dozens and prompted international outrage. In the weeks following the school bus attack, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were working to reduce civilian casualties in Yemen.

Last Wednesday, five Republican senators wrote a letter to President Trump expressing their concerns about Saudi leadership in the wake of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The senators threatened to use an obscure provision in the Atomic Energy Act to block future U.S.-Saudi nuclear agreements if their concerns were not addressed.

The State Department has confirmed senior U.S. officials are in talks with both sides of the Yemen conflict and seek to negotiate an end to the war.