More than 500 killed in two weeks of violence in Yemen, tens of thousands fleeing homes

FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2015 file photo, people carry the body of a child they uncovered from under the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi airstrikes near Sanaa Airport, Yemen. In just the first four days of fighting in Yemen, at least 62 children were killed by airstrikes or in clashes, UNICEF says, just one sign of the humanitarian damage being wreaked by the conflict in a country already gutted by years of chaos.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) (The Associated Press)

Indians evacuated from Yemen sit inside the Indian Air Force C17 Globemaster aircraft upon their arrival at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 2, 2015. India is evacuating its citizens from Yemen amid the growing violence in the Middle Eastern country. (AP Photo/Press Trust of India, Mitesh Bhuvad) (The Associated Press)

CAIRO – The U.N. humanitarian chief says an estimated 519 people have been killed the past two weeks in Yemen's violence, many of them civilians and 90 of them children.

The deaths come as Saudi Arabia and its allies launched an air campaign on March 25 in support of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his loyalists against Shiite rebels. Hadi's loyalists have been battling the rebels for weeks on the ground.

In a statement Thursday, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos, expresses concern "for the safety of civilians caught in the middle."

She says some 519 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded, many of them civilians, the past two weeks. Among the dead were 90 children. She says tens of thousands have fled their homes.