The images Saudi Arabia doesn’t want you to see

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Batool Ali is six years old, though you would never guess that from her huge, haunted eyes and emaciated frame. Ribs jutting out over her distended belly, Batool weighs less than 16 kilograms (35 pounds). She is one of nearly half a million children in Yemen suffering from severe malnutrition.

In another hospital, Ali Annhari sits with his daughter Isra in his lap. Her eyes are glazed, an IV drip in her hand. She is suffering from cholera.

“I am scared of course,” Annhari says, “three of my children had cholera. Your children are your world. I have been eight months without a salary, so we are struggling and borrowing money … the treatment is so expensive.”

Yemen: The images Saudi Arabia doesn't want you to see —

After two and a half years of civil war, Yemen is in the grip of a vicious cholera outbreak and a near famine that have coincided to create one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet.

Batool Ali, aged 6, stands on a hospital bed in Saada City, Yemen. Batool is suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The pouch attached to her arm contains a potion used to ward off snakes while families take shelter in the desert overnight.

A suspected cholera patient lies on a wooden bed in a hospital in Al Hudaydah. According to the World Health Organization, there are 167,000 cholera cases across the country, and more than 1,100 people have died of the disease.

Ahmed, three, and his six-year-old sister Khaoula were orphaned in an airstrike on their house. Ahmed's knee is completely broken and medical staff say that his right leg will no longer grow. Khaoula lost her teeth and most of her tongue in the attack.

The war is severely hampering access to critical medical supplies. Patients at the Sciences and Technology Hospital in the capital, Sana'a, are treated with the support of Al-Ataa, a national NGO funded by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Saleh is four months old and severely malnourished. His 22-year-old mother, Nora, already has five children -- the first was born when she was just 12, after a forced marriage at the age of 11.

An injured soldier salutes while being photographed on his hospital bed at the Al Thawra Hospital in Sana'a. He sustained disfiguring facial wounds in an airstrike in the northern Saada region of the country.

Majed Shoei was injured six months ago when a bomb exploded near him. Money is tight for the father-of-eight, who used to be a construction worker, but is unable to work because of his health and so cannot afford to pay his medical bills.

Abdellatif Allami walks with his three-year-old daughter Sara in the Harat Al-Masna'a slum in Sana'a, home to the families of former factory workers. They used to receive a basic pension of around $120 a month, but the payments stopped seven months ago, and the families now rely on donations to survive.

Children play in a pool of water in the Harat Al-Masna'a slum in Sana'a. The slum, which is close to an urban military base, was hit by two airstrikes last year on the Eid Al-Adha holiday, destroying 25 houses.

Young students play in the ruins of the Aal Okab school in Saada City, which was destroyed in June 2015. At least two million Yemeni children are missing school, and more than 1,600 schools out of action because of conflict-related damage, according to UNICEF.

A student at the Aal Okab school stands in the ruins of one of his former classrooms. He and his fellow pupils now attend lesson in UNICEF tents nearby.

Khairy is a mother of three; she has just given birth to a baby boy, but she is unable to breastfeed because she is undernourished and she does not have enough formula milk to feed her new son.

Children peer out of a window in a former government building in the suburbs of Ibb. The building was provided by local authorities to house 53 displaced families, but has no electricity or running water.

The slippers of young orphans scattered on the floor of the Al Hubaishi Orphanage in Ibb. The facility houses more than 200 boys, most of whose fathers were killed while serving in the army.

Cars and trucks wait in line to pass over a bridge that was hit by an airstrike in 2016 -- one of just four roads linking Al Hudaydah with the rest of the country.

Mohammad, 17, from Mogadishu survived an attack on a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen that killed at least 42 people. He says he saw a helicopter take off from a large military boat and thought they were being saved -- until it opened fire on them. Two of his friends were killed, and he had to have his right foot amputated.

A military guard sits in the former Assembly Hall of the Governor of Saada that now lies in ruins following multiple airstrikes in April 2015.

A man stands next to a missile casing in a former government building in Saada City, which was attacked in April 2015. Since the conflict escalated, two years ago, much of the city's infrastructure has been destroyed.

Yemen has been in the grip of civil war since March 2015, when Houthi rebels drove out the government and took over the capital, Sana'a. The crisis quickly escalated, allowing al Qaeda and ISIS -- enemies of the Houthis -- to grow stronger amid the chaos.

Since the conflict began, the Saudi-led coalition, which has US support, has imposed a blockade on the country that has left nearly 80 percent of Yemenis reliant on humanitarian assistance for their most basic needs.

A sandstorm barrels across the landscape near Abs, a sprawling settlement for internally displaced people in Yemen. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says more than 3 million Yemenis are displaced.

Yemenis collect drinking water at a camp for internally displaced people. Water is heavily rationed at the camp, and is only available during three one-hour windows each day. The UN says 14.5 million people in Yemen need help to access safe water and sanitation.

Children watch a mini tornado whip up sand as it travels across the desert near the town of Huth, 80km north of Sana'a. Aid agencies predict that by the end of the year, Yemen will be in a state of full-blown famine.

The conflict between Houthi militants and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Arab states that support the former Hadi government, is known as "the silent war" because it receives little attention in the media.

Yemen: The images Saudi Arabia doesn't want you to see

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Yemen is in the grip of a vicious cholera outbreak and a near famine that have coincided to create one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet.

But you won’t find the story splashed on front pages and leading news bulletins around the globe – Yemen’s grinding two-and-a-half-year civil conflict, between Houthi militants and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Arab states that support the former Hadi government, is often called “the silent war” because it receives relatively little attention in the media.

Yet that’s not for want of trying: for the past two months CNN and dozens of other journalists have been actively pushing to gain access to the hardest-hit parts of the country.

IMPACT YOUR WORLD: How you can help people in Yemen

Batool Ali is severely malnourished. Aid agencies are predicting a full-blown famine in Yemen.

The only way to get into these areas is on humanitarian aid flights, primarily run by the UN. Based on conversations with multiple sources, CNN has found that the Hadi government of Yemen and its Saudi Arabian-led backers are actively seeking to block journalists and human rights organizations from flying in on aid flights.

A UN humanitarian worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed this with CNN: “The people who can let journalists into the country aren’t letting them in – that is the Yemeni government and their Saudi-led coalition backers.”

Sources tell CNN the UN fears allowing journalists onto aid planes could lead to a complete block by Saudi authorities of their future flights into Sana’a.

Houthi forces have also reportedly sought to block access to news outlets and have been accused of arresting journalists randomly.

READ MORE: Yemen spiraling toward ‘total collapse’ says UN

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Updated 4:22 PM EDT, Tue July 18, 2017

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The images Saudi Arabia doesn't want you to see

04:45 - Source: CNN

An investigation published earlier this month by humanitarian focused news agency, IRIN, echoed CNN’s findings suggesting that a deliberate obstruction campaign was in force.

“(J)ust as a cholera epidemic threatens to spiral out of control, IRIN has learnt that the nominal government of Yemen and its Saudi Arabian-led backers have moved to prevent journalists and human rights workers from travelling on UN chartered flights to the capital, further reducing coverage and access at a critical moment,” IRIN reported.

Journalists have been barred from traveling to Sana’a in the past but it is perhaps no coincidence that this latest suspension came just days before US President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia and announced a $110 billion weapons deal with the country

Some have suggested that the Gulf kingdom feels emboldened by the strong show of support offered by the US president.

Aaron David Miller, analyst with the Woodrow Wilson Center, says “the combination of a risk-ready king and Deputy Crown Prince and the American validation … have come together to embolden the Saudis and make them even more risk-ready when it comes to asserting their power in their narrow sphere of influence which is the Gulf, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), and Yemen.”

READ MORE: Children bear brunt of cholera outbreak

Mother-of-three Khairy has just given birth to a baby boy, but cannot breastfeed him because she is undernourished.

CNN has reached out to the Saudi government and military multiple times for comment on the efforts to prevent journalists from accessing the hardest hit parts of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdallah Yahya A. Al-Mouallimi, refuted the claim in a statement, insisting: “Saudi Arabia does not exercise any kind of censorship. Many news reporters have been granted access to Yemen.”

Yemen officials with the Hadi government have told CNN that it is not safe for journalists to travel to the country’s capital, Sana’a, at this time, but assured that efforts are being made to facilitate media needs.

Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, warned CNN of the toll that the lack of media coverage is taking. He said the UN has been unable to raise even 30% of the funding it needs to deal with the crisis.

“Yemen is very much a silent, forgotten, I would even say a purposefully forgotten emergency,” McGoldrick says. “And because we don’t get the media attention, we don’t get the political support and therefore we don’t get the resources we need to address this humanitarian catastrophe.”

READ MORE: In city ravaged by cholera, sick eat breadcrumbs

Aal Okab School in Saada City was destroyed during the conflict. Pupils are now taught in tents.

What makes these images particularly painful to look at is the realization that this humanitarian crisis is entirely man-made.

Since the conflict began, the Saudi-led coalition, which has US support, has imposed a blockade on the country that has left nearly 80 percent of Yemenis reliant on humanitarian assistance for their most basic needs.

According to the World Health Organization, there are now 167,000 cholera cases across the country. More than 1,100 people have died already and UNICEF says the number of cases could quadruple in the next month.

But it is hunger which aid workers fear will be the biggest killer. A staggering 17 million people are suffering from severe food insecurity in Yemen; nearly seven million are severely food insecure. By the end of the year, aid agencies predict, the country will be in a state of full blown famine.

IMPACT YOUR WORLD: How you can help people in Yemen

Abdellatif Allami and his daughter in the Harat Al-Masna'a slum in Sana'a, home to hundreds of former factory workers.

For Ghalfan Ali Hamza and his nine-month-old son, Akram, the situation is untenable.

Ali Hamza lives in one of the many sprawling, dusty camps for people who have fled the war. Akram, ribs protruding through sallow skin, has been malnourished for four months.

“I lost my job and lost everything,” Ali Hamza says. “I live here in the camp with 20 relatives. We are hoping any aid group will come see us and help us but no one has come. We await God’s fate.”

CNN’s Waffa Munayyer contributed to this story.