A UN official warned Wednesday (May 10th) that up to half a million people could be displaced as conflict escalates and the humanitarian situation worsens in Yemen's Taez province.
"Between 100,000 and half a million people could be displaced as the conflict and humanitarian situation continue to worsen," Yemen spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Shabia Mantoo told AFP from the Red Sea port of al-Hodeida.
"The humanitarian situation alone continues to worsen even without the conflict intensifying," she said.
Fears of large-scale displacement are exacerbated by rampant food insecurity in al-Hodeida that the UNHCR says has reached critical levels.
Mantoo said more women and children were begging in al-Hodeida, where people displaced mainly from Mokha and the city of Taez have sought refuge.
Meanwhile, the UN on Thursday confirmed 58 cases of cholera and 47 cholera-associated deaths in Yemen in the past two weeks.
The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said laboratory testing had confirmed the infection in 10 governorates.
Another 2,301 suspected cases were identified in governorates including Sanaa, where more than 30% of the cases were diagnosed, and in governorates in the north, south and along the Red Sea coast, OCHA said.
