1,500 dead from cholera outbreak in Yemen: WHO

By Zakaria al-Kamali

SANAA

A cholera outbreak has killed at least 1,500 people in war-torn Yemen since late April, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Speaking at a press conference in Sanaa on Saturday, Nevio Zagaria, the head of WHO office in Yemen, said the epidemic has hit 21 provinces out of Yemen's 22 provinces.

UNICEF's acting representative Sherin Varkey, for his part, said a quarter of the fatalities from the outbreak were children.

UN agencies have repeatedly warned that the three-year long fighting in Yemen had destroyed the country's health sector, making it difficult to deal with the epidemic.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in a state of civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s embattled government.

According to UN officials, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the war, while more than 11 percent of the country’s population has been displaced as a direct result of the conflict.