The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recorded more than 110,000 suspected cholera cases across 290 of Yemen’s 331 districts since January, 25 per cent among children under the age of five.

“Over 5 million children under the age of five in Yemen are facing a heightened threat of cholera and Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) as the country continues to experience increased heavy rains since mid-April,” UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, said in a statement yesterday.

She added: “Children in Yemen continue to face a myriad of threats to their survival. A further spread of cholera, high levels of malnutrition and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases compounded by COVID-19 will only exacerbate the burden that children and their families already face.”

She warned that “a tragedy continues to unfold in Yemen in the full glare of the world.”

Yemen has been torn apart by war for nearly six years. Some 80 per cent of its population are in need of humanitarian aid as a result.