Yemen Could be 'Worst' Humanitarian Crisis in 50 Years: UN Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The UN's humanitarian chief said that there are a million suspected cases of cholera in Yemen, warning that it could become the worst humanitarian disaster in half a century.
"The cholera outbreak is probably the worst the world has ever seen with a million suspected cases up to the end of 2017,” Mark Lowcock, the UN's under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator said on Friday.
Lowcock said "a terrible new epidemic" of diphtheria, a bacterial disease which should be completely preventable by immunization, has already "affected up to 500 people with dozens and dozens of deaths" in the past few weeks.
"That is going to spread like wildfire," he added. "Unless the situation changes, we're going to have the world's worst humanitarian disaster for 50 years.”
The official said that "The situation in Yemen - today, right now, to the population of the country - looks like the apocalypse."
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for almost three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Over 12,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.