Yemen urges Arab League to discuss health situation urgently

Yemen called yesterday for an emergency meeting of the Council of Arab Health Ministers of the Arab League to discuss ways to tackle the humanitarian and health situation in the war-torn country, Anadolu has reported. More specifically, there is a need to fight the cholera epidemic.

According to Yemen’s official news agency, Saba, its ambassador to the Arab League, Riyadh Al-Akbari, handed over a letter from the Minister of Public Health and Population, Nasser Baoum, to his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Emad Eddin Radhi, who is also the head of the Executive Office of the council. The ambassador and minister discussed “ways to strengthen and expand the support of the member states of the Arab League to confront the cholera epidemic, which threatens many provinces.”

Radhi said that he is trying to get the health ministers to meet in the first half of September. The intention will be to evaluate the humanitarian conditions in Yemen. He stressed Egypt’s readiness to provide more humanitarian and relief aid to help Yemen to overcome the critical situation.

The health sector in Yemen has been disrupted severely by the war in the country since autumn 2014. Many medical facilities have been destroyed. On Thursday, the World Health Organisation said that more than half-a-million people have been affected by the cholera outbreak since April this year, with almost 200 confirmed cases.