Nearly 1.2 million doses of cholera vaccine arrived in Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Thursday, local health authorities said in a statement.

The shipment arrived in Sanaa airport by a cargo plane belonging to UNICEF, the statement said.

The vaccine will be throughout Sanaa and other cities within next weeks, it added.

The UNICEF office in Sanaa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, a UN spokesman said there have been more than 460,000 suspected cases of cholera in Yemen so far this year, including about 200,000 children, compared to 380,000 cases throughout last year.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said there have been 705 deaths this year, compared to 75 in the same period last year.

Recent flash flooding accelerated the spread of cholera across Yemen, which has also been exacerbated by poor maintenance of waste management systems and lack of access to clean water for drinking and irrigation.

The United Nations and its partners are running nearly 1,200 cholera treatment facilities across Yemen, Haq said, adding funding for the facilities is urgently needed.

Yemen is suffering a long-running civil war between the government and Houthi rebels, which humanitarians said has brought the country to the brink of famine.AFP