A cholera outbreak of more than 100,000 cases has erupted in Yemen, killing nearly 800 people, in just over a month, the World Health Organisation said Thursday (June 8th).
The UN health agency said that since the end of April, 101,820 suspected cholera cases had been registered across 19 of the country's 21 governorates, including 789 deaths, AFP reported.
WHO has warned that a quarter of a million people could fall sick with cholera by the end of the year in Yemen, a country where two-thirds of the population are on the brink of famine.
British charity Oxfam also voiced alarm Thursday at what it described as "a runaway cholera epidemic" in Yemen, pointing out that the disease is currently killing nearly one person every hour.
"Cholera is simple to treat and prevent but while the fighting continues the task is made doubly difficult," Sajjad Mohammed Sajid, Oxfam's Yemen country director, said in a statement, insisting that "a massive aid effort is needed now."
