At the last minute, the parties to the conflict in Yemen agreed to extend the ceasefire by a further two months.

The UN special representative for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced on Tuesday evening that this will now be extended until October 2nd under the conditions already in force.

Shortly before, the previously applicable ceasefire in the country had expired.

Both sides have also assured that they want to work together towards an even more far-reaching agreement, said Grundberg.

According to the Reuters news agency, Grundberg had actually campaigned for a six-month ceasefire with additional agreements.

Representatives from the USA and Oman also took part in the talks.

However, both parties to the conflict have complaints about the implementation of the previous agreement and treat each other with distrust.

A proxy war has been raging in Yemen for more than seven years, plunging the poor country on the Arabian Peninsula into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Saudi Arabia has been fighting there with allies since 2015 against the Houthi rebels, who control large parts of the north.

Riyadh sees them as an extension of its nemesis Iran.

The war has already claimed more than 150,000 lives, including 14,000 civilians.

The UN and aid organizations are trying to provide for around 23 million people in the country, including eleven million children.

About 19 million people do not have enough to eat.

The ceasefire came into effect for two months at the beginning of April and was then extended in June.

There had been no ceasefire in the country since 2016.

The number of civilians killed fell, as did the otherwise regular attacks by the Houthis across the border to Saudi Arabia with rockets and drones.

However, civilians continued to die from landmines, for example.

The ACLED analysis project has counted 300 fatalities and 1,700 violations of the ceasefire since it began.

The agreement gave the suffering population a moment of "rest and hope," said 30 aid organizations, including CARE, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee.

This progress should not be wasted.

The parties to the conflict must “allow people to restore and rebuild their lives”.

All efforts to find a political solution to the conflict have so far failed.