Cholera Epidemic in Yemen

The UN health agency says there are now more than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera in an outbreak in war-torn Yemen, many of them children. UNICEF director Anthony Lake and World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said in a statement, “we are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world,” with an average of 5,000 new cases every day. The agencies say that more than 1,300 people have died — one quarter of them children — and the death toll is expected to rise. Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, has been devastated by a war between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement. More than 7600 people have been killed and 42,000 injured since March 2015, the majority in air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs the president.The conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have also triggered a humanitarian disaster, leaving 70% of the population in need of aid.