War-wracked Yemen in grip of world's worst cholera outbreak

Cairo, July 18 (IANS/AKI) At least 1,802 people have died of cholera in war-torn Yemen since the disease broke out there in late April and spread to 21 out of 23 provinces, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

A total of 356,591 cases have been recorded in Yemen - the Arab world's poorest nation - according to the UN World Health Organisation.

The five worst-hit governorates were Amanat, al-Asimah, al-Hudaydah, Hajjah, Amran and Ibb, in the west and south of Yemen, the WHO said.

Medics have struggled to quell the cholera epidemic in Yemen, much of whose health infracture has been destroyed amid a Saudi-led bombing campaign against Shia Houthi rebels that began in March 2015 and the civil war that started in 2014.

The conflict in Yemen is intensifying daily, with terrorist groups expanding and 14 million people in desperate need of food and clean water, the UN special envoy for Yemen warned last week.

--IANS/AKI

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