20 June 2017•Update: 21 June 2017
By Zakaria al-Kamali
SANAA, Yemen
A cholera epidemic has killed some 1,146 people in war-torn Yemen since late April, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a late Monday statement, WHO's Yemen office said over 166,976 suspected cases of cholera have been registered in the country since April 27.
The northwestern Hajjah province has recorded the highest number of deaths from the disease with 195 fatalities.
The UN agency earlier warned that the three-year 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.
