Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Geneva: There are over 460,000 suspected cases of cholera in Yemen so far this year, according to a UN spokesman.
The figure is greater than the 380,000 cases reported for the entirety of last year.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that out of the suspected cases there already have been 705 deaths this year, compared to 75 in the same period last year.
Moreover, approximately 200,000 children are suspected of having contracted the disease in 2019, according to Haq.
Recent flash flooding accelerated the spread of cholera across the country, which has also been exacerbated by poor maintenance of waste management systems and lack of access to clean water for drinking or irrigation, he added.
The UN and its partners are running nearly 1,200 cholera treatment facilities around Yemen, Haq said, adding funding for the facilities is urgently needed.
"The Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan requires 4.2 billion dollars to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 20 million people this year," the spokesman said. "As of today, only 32 percent of those requirements have been met."
