SANAA (Dispatches) – The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) says some 209 people have been killed in recent weeks in a cholera epidemic that threatens the lives of many people in Yemen, which has been under Saudi airstrikes for more than two years.
The UN agency said the rise in cholera-related deaths was "alarming."
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday that the cholera outbreak had claimed the lives of 184 people since April 27, with 11,000 suspected cases across the country.
UNICEF's Yemen mission added that some 17,200 suspected cases of cholera had been reported across the impoverished country.
Mohammed al-Asaadi, the agency's Yemen spokesman, said some 3,000 new suspected cases were being reported every day.
UNICEF works alongside the ICRC and the World Health Organization to coordinate with health authorities and relief groups in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
On Sunday, Yemen's Health Ministry declared a state of emergency in Sana'a in connection with the epidemic.