Yemen: the world's worst humanitarian crisis, says UN

A vicious combination of war, cholera and hunger has left 80 per cent of Yemeni children in need of "immediate humanitarian assistance."

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Yemen is suffering the world's worst cholera outbreak in the midst of the world's largest crisis, said the heads of three of the world's biggest humanitarian organisations.

A vicious combination of war, cholera and hunger has left 80 per cent of Yemeni children in need of "immediate humanitarian assistance."

Anthony Lake, executive director of Unicef, the United Nations children's agency, David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, travelled to Yemen  to see the scale of the suffering in the country.

In a joint statement released at the end of a two-day visit,  they said Yemen - which was already one of the poorest countries in the world before the civil war started two years ago  - was suffering a catastrophe at every level, with widespread acute malnutrition, impending famine, and much of its infrastructure destroyed.

"At one hospital, we visited children who can barely gather the strength to breathe," the three directors said in their statement. "We spoke with families overcome with sorrow for their ill loved ones and struggling to feed their families."

Cholera has claimed 1,900 lives since April, with 400,000 suspected cases across the country, according to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.That number is expected to reach 600,000 by the end of the year.

They praised the dedication of the more than  30,000 health workers who have received no salary for more than 10 months but still report for duty, and urged the Yemeni authorities to pay them as a mater of urgency  "because, without them, we fear that people who would otherwise have survived may die."

UN agencies have set up more than 1,000 diarrhoea treatment centres and oral rehydration spots, as well as rehabilitating hospitals and the sanitation network.

The three directors toured both government- and rebel-held areas during their visit.

International donors pledged $2.1 billion in aid at a conference earlier this year but only a third of it has been disbursed and the shortfall has forced aid agencies to redirect their limited resources towards fighting cholera, leaving communities at greater risk of malnutrition. But there was also reason to hope, the agency chiefs said. More than 99 per cent of people with suspected cholera are now surviving if they are able to access health services..
The directors said they had met Yemeni leaders in the capital, Sanaa and in Aden, where the government has temporarily moved, and  "

called on them to give humanitarian workers access to areas affected by fighting. And we urged them – more than anything – to find a peaceful political solution to the conflict."