Red Cross: 1 million Yemenis at risk of cholera

An international aid group says 1 million people in three Yemeni cities are at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases due to the closure of air and sea ports by a Saudi-led military coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Friday the cities of Hodeida, Saada and Taiz had to stop providing clean water in recent days due to a lack of fuel.

The United Nations warned on Thursday that fuel supplies needed to run Yemen's hospital generators and pump clean water will run out in less than three weeks, unless the Saudi-led coalition lifts its blockade.

The dire forecast came as Yemen battles one of the world's worst outbreaks of cholera, with nearly one million people infected. Some 2,200 people have died.

Adding to the woes of aid workers on the ground, stocks of diphtheria vaccines will be emptied in two weeks unless aid deliveries are once again allowed in the country, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The Saudi-led military coalition shut down Yemen's sea and air ports as well as borders on November 6 in response to a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in neighbouring Yemen in March 2015 to push back the rebels who control the capital Sanaa, in an attempt to restore the government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

The UN has listed Yemen as the world's number one humanitarian crisis, with 17 million people in need of food, seven million of whom are at risk of famine.