Suspected cholera cases spikes in Yemen in 2019: UN

Nearly 110,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in war-torn Yemen since the beginning of January, including 190 related deaths, the UN said on the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led military intervention.

Children under the age of five make up nearly a third of 108,889 cases which were reported between January 1 and March 17, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said.

The spike, which comes two years after Yemen suffered its worst cholera outbreak, was concentrated in six governorates including in the Red Sea port of Hodeida and the Sanaa province home to the capital, OCHA said.

Early rains could be blamed for the recent increase in suspected cholera cases, it said.

"The situation is exacerbated by poor maintenance of sewage disposal systems in many of the affected districts, the use of contaminated water for irrigation, and population movements," OCHA added.

The waterborne disease is endemic to Yemen, which witnessed the worst cholera outbreak in its modern history in 2017.

More than one million suspected cases were reported within an eight-month period that year and more than 2,500 people died of the infection between April and December 2017.

The war between the Houthis and pro-government troops escalated four years ago in March 2015, when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened against the rebels.

More than 10,000 people - mostly civilians - have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition joined the conflict, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

But the exact numbers are not known and aid groups warn the toll is likely to be at least five times higher, with Action Against Hunger putting it at more than 57,000.

'Hell on earth' for children

The UN children's fund (UNICEF) has regularly pointed to the devastating effects of the conflict on children.

"It is a living hell for every boy and girl in Yemen," it said in November 2018.

It said 1.8 million aged less than five are suffering from acute malnutrition.

Save the Children said that between April 2015 and October 2018 some 85,000 children may have died of severe malnutrition or related diseases. Others have been killed by combat.

According to the UN, two million of the country's seven million children of school age go without education in Yemen.

More than 2,500 schools are out of use, of which two thirds have been damaged in attacks, 27 percent closed and seven percent used by the military or as shelters for displaced people.

Largely due to their families' poverty, two out of five girls are married before the age of 15 and three quarters before 18, according to UNICEF.

Thousands of boys have been recruited as child soldiers.

Yemen's four-year conflict has left thousands dead and triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

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