Hudaydah Cholera Cases Triple After Saudi-UAE Offensive

Date: 02 October 2018 - 22:14

News ID: ۵۸۰۱۰

SANAA (Al Jazeera) – Suspected cholera cases have almost tripled in Yemen's coastal Hudaydah’region since the Saudi Arabia-UAE coalition launched a military offensive in June to retake the area, according to a rights group.
Health facilities across the governorate recorded a 170 percent increase in the number of suspected cholera cases, from 497 in June to 1,342 in August, Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, said in a report.
The group said the spike was in line with national data that also showed a steady increase of suspected cholera cases across Yemen.
Thirty percent of all suspected cases are children under five years old, according to the World Health Organization.
"The situation in Hudaydah has become unbearable because of the conflict. I'm seeing more and more children coming in with suspected cholera," Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children's Hudaydah field manager, said.
"I met one mother of two who has acute diarrhoea and she told me her whole family is affected because they don't have access to clean water anymore."
The rise in suspected cases in Hudaydah follows a dramatic increase in fighting by the Saudi Arabia-UAE coalition since June.
According to the group, a series of air raids in late July resulted in the damage of a sanitation facility and water station that supplies Hudaydah with most of its water.
Suspected cholera cases almost doubled in the aftermath of the incident, going from 732 in July to 1,342 in August.
Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, Emirati forces and militants loyal to the former Yemeni government launched the assault on Hudaydah on June 13 despite warnings that it would worsen the impoverished nation’s humanitarian crisis.
According to the UN and the World Health Organization, Yemen faces a third cholera epidemic as autumn rains have increased the risk of infection, as a result of the Saudi-led war.

Thirty percent of all cholera cases in Yemen are children under five years old, according to the WHO.