UNICEF warns of another cholera outbreak in Yemen

Sanaa, August 4: Yemen has just become like another hell as the peoples are only getting killed in the war-torn country either by civil war or by an outbreak of disastrous diseases including cholera, diphtheria etc. Taking a noted on the recent attacks on Hodeida port, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned of another cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen.

 

UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore firstly condemned the attacks and repeated violence being done in Yemen’s Hodeida and said that the survival of hundreds of thousands of children and their families are in direct threat.

She said, “Two days ago, we received reports that a UNICEF-supported warehouse containing humanitarian provisions, including hygiene and water-related supplies, was hit by two airstrikes. On 28 July, a UNICEF-supported sanitation centre in the Zabid District came under attack, damaging the facility’s fuel tank. On 27 July, the water station in al-Mina District, which provides Hodeida with most of its water, was hit.”

The UNICEF executive director further said, “Yemen is already facing a severe shortage of drinking water, which is directly linked to outbreaks of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea. Attacks on water infrastructure jeopardize efforts to prevent another outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea.”

“We continue to call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure,” she said adding that the war in Yemen has no winners. “It is robbing Yemeni children of their futures.” Henrietta Fore concluded.

On the other side, the World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned saying Yemen may be on the verge of another cholera epidemic, which could be deadlier than previous ones because of widespread malnutrition in the war-torn country.

Since April 2017 to February 2018, more than 1,060,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2300 deaths have been reported in Yemen. 96% parts of Yemen was severely hampered and affected.

In 2011, some 719,377 suspected cases of cholera were recorded in Haiti, and 8,767 people died, according to national figures cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An epidemic late last year faded but outbreaks are frequent and made worse by the degrading of health and sanitation systems by more than two years of civil war that has also killed at least 10,000 people and displaced millions.