MUSCAT: The U.N. envoy for Yemen has announced a new bid for peace talks between the government and rebels, after the latest cease-fire failed to end the 20-month conflict.

The effort by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed came as dozens were reported killed in fighting at the weekend.

Envoy Cheikh Ahmed said he was heading to Riyadh and Kuwait “to prepare for a new round” of talks, as he left Muscat late Saturday after discussions with representatives of Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their allies.

Riyadh has been the base of Yemeni President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi since the rebels forced him to flee his country in March 2015 and prompted Saudi Arabia to lead an Arab coalition in a military campaign against the rebels.

The U.N. envoy was to meet Hadi “within two days” in the southern Yemeni city of Aden to receive the government’s response to his peace proposals, Foreign Minister Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi told AFP.

Hadi flew to Aden Saturday for a surprise visit to the port city which is serving as Yemen’s temporary capital since coalition-backed loyalists recaptured it from the rebels.

Cheikh Ahmed, quoted by Oman’s official ONA news agency, said he found “a lot of seriousness” in talks with representatives of the Houthis and their allies from the party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The envoy also said he had been in contact with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who “sees a historic chance to achieve peace in Yemen.”

A previous round of peace talks held in Kuwait collapsed in August.

A 48-hour cease-fire declared by the coalition ended last Monday with little success in reducing violence in the war-torn country.

Both parties traded blame for the numerous violations of the cease-fire that came into effect after Kerry intervened.

It was the latest international attempt to end a conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and wounded nearly 37,000 since March last year.

A Yemeni official said Sunday 12 civilians were killed when a coalition airstrike hit two makeshift wooden houses sheltering displaced families in the western province of Hudaida.

The official said the raid late Saturday had apparently targeted the two houses “mistakenly,” adding that a rebel position 300 meters away was untouched.

In northwest Yemen, the sources said, 40 soldiers and 22 rebels have been killed since Friday in heavy clashes for control of a road linking the Red Sea port city of Midi and nearby Haradh.

Elsewhere, two women were killed in rebel bombing of the southwestern city of Taiz, military officials said.

Clashes raged on the outskirts of the flashpoint city, killing four rebels and three government soldiers late on Saturday, they said.