At least five Saudi-paid Sudanese soldiers have lost their lives when Yemeni army troops and fighters from allied Popular Committees launched an attack in the country’s strategic western province of Hudaydah.

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Saudi mercenaries were traveling on board two military vehicles in al-Tuhayat district on Saturday, when they came under attack.

Earlier this month, the spokesman for Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, referred to the deaths of several Sudanese mercenaries in Hudaydah, saying they were the “victims of their government being on the payroll in a cruel and senseless war.”

“With all respect for the Sudanese nation, we hope the Sudanese regime will change its position regarding its participation in the aggression against Yemen. The Sudanese government will achieve nothing but defeat and destruction from this futile war,” he added.

Abdul-Salam warned that Yemen would turn into a “graveyard” for invaders.

Separately on Saturday, Yemeni soldiers and their allies targeted the positions of Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur in an area of Yemen’s southwestern province of Dhale.

Yemeni troopers and Popular Committees fighters also fired four domestically-developed Zelzal-2 (Earthquake-2) ballistic missiles at the strongholds of Saudi soldiers and mercenaries in the kingdom’s border region of Jizan. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage though.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.