More than 3,000 dead since epidemic began in 2016, Oxfam says

At least 195,000 suspected cases of cholera have been registered in Yemen since Jan. 1 of this year, while more than 3,000 people have died of the disease since 2016, according to an international aid NGO.

“Some 195,000 people are suspected to have contracted the disease so far this year, of whom more than 38,000 are in districts that are hard for aid agencies to reach,” Oxfam, a U.K.-based umbrella of charity organizations, said in a Thursday statement.

“More than 3,000 people have died since the outbreak began in 2016,” it added.

The NGO went on to assert that, at its height in June 2017, “7,000 suspected cases were being identified every day with the outbreak being described by the World Health Organization as the worst in human history”.

In the statement, Oxfam Yemen Country Director Muhsin Siddiquey is quoted as saying: “The international community urgently needs to ensure safe, secure and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid for all people in need across the country.”

Yemen has been wracked by violence since 2014 when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched air campaign in Yemen with the ostensible aim of rolling back Houthi gains.

The ongoing violence has destroyed much of Yemen’s basic infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation there as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.

AFP.