Ten children with leukaemia died after receiving smuggled medicines in a public hospital in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, a statement by the Houthi-controlled health authorities said.

Nine other children are in critical condition after receiving the same smuggled medicines, the statement said, adding that an investigation is underway.

Smuggled medicines are common for hospitals across Yemen, which have been suffering from shortage of drugs, equipment and funds.

More than half of Yemen’s medical facilities have been paralysed since a civil war broke out.

The Houthi rebels captured large swaths of northern Yemen in 2014 and drove the Saudi-backed Yemeni government out of Sanaa, plunging the Arab country into a civil war that continues till date.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced four million, and pushed the Arab country to the brink of starvation.