OXFAM has urged opponents in Yemen to find agreement at today’s peace talks as the country reels from its “cruellest month”.

The Geneva summit is the first in two years to try to secure an end to hostilities between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces.

The meeting comes after an August in which more than 450 civilian casualties were reported in the first nine days alone.

More than 130 of these were children and the international aid charity says it is “likely” that this number, drawn from open sources, is an underestimate.

Muhsin Siddiquey, the organisation’s Yemen country director, said: “Yemen is now a free-fire zone where people gathering for weddings, burying their loved ones or going to market are risking their lives. The suffering of the people of Yemen is an affront to our shared humanity and a failure of powerful countries to uphold any sense of the values they are fond of espousing.

“How many more children will be killed before the backers of this war will face up to their complicity?

“The UK Government, which continues to arm the Saudis, appears to have no red lines when it comes to Yemen.

“Expressing concern for Saudi actions is not enough. The UK Government should condemn them, revisit their policy of arming Saudi Arabia and call for an immediate ceasefire.

“War crimes are being committed regularly.

“The perpetrators and those who are actively involved need to be brought to account. The carnage has to end.”

The UK Government has repeatedly defended its record on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, emphasising that is is not an active participant in the war, despite providing some training to personnel.

Despite assurances of a “pause” in the fighting around key port city Hudaydah, incidents in August include mortar attacks on a market that killed 41 civilians – including six children and four women – and injured 111 more.

The period also included the bombing of a bus carrying school children, which claimed 46 lives and left 100 casualties.

Most of those killed were boys who had not yet reached their 13th birthdays.

According to the UN, 16 fishermen died in an airstrike, two children were killed by cluster bombs and infrastructure included farms, homes and schools was attacked.

Meanwhile, major obstacles to the delivery of aid – including active fighting and blocked roads – remain and continuing struggles with access to water and sanitation threaten a third wave of deadly cholera.

The country has already suffered the largest and fastest-spreading epidemic on record of the disease.

In a recent report UN investigators said they had evidence of widespread atrocities carried out by all sides in the fighting. However, the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government has denied wrongdoing, with a spokesperson disputing the veracity of some evidence which Human Rights Watch says proves involvement.

Oxfam said: “While the focus is on Hudyadah, fighting is also reported in other parts of the country including Lahj, Al Baydah, Sa’daa, Hajaah, Taiz and elsewhere.”

The agency went on: “The Houthis and other armed groups continue their stranglehold on Taiz and other areas where street fighting and the use of landmines is leading to civilian casualties, and lack of access means people are denied humanitarian assistance.”

Commenting, Siddiquey said: “Yemen is on the verge of collapse.

“The fighting has to end and the country put on the road to peace.

“The talks about talks due to start in Geneva this week are welcome. But the killings have to stop.”