Cholera kills 1,146 Yemenis in 2 months

A cholera epidemic has killed some 1,146 people in war-torn Yemen since late April, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In a statement released yesterday, WHO’s Yemen office said over 166,976 suspected cases of cholera have been registered in the country since 27 April.

The northwestern Hajjah province has recorded the highest number of deaths from the disease with 195 fatalities.

Read: Cholera threatens 1.1m pregnant women in Yemen, warns UN

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 Sana’a.

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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 per cent of the country’s population displaced.